Advanced Recycling; SB 114
SB 114 defines advanced recycling and related terms and provides exceptions to the
definition of solid waste management systems and similar terms regarding advanced recycling.
Definitions
The bill defines the term “advanced recycling” as a manufacturing process where
already sorted post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks are purchased and then converted
into basic raw materials, feedstocks, chemicals, and other products through processes that
include, but are not limited to, pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization, catalytic cracking,
reforming, hydrogenation, solvolysis, chemolysis, and other similar technologies.
The bill states “advanced recycling” does not include the incineration of plastics or
waste-to-energy processes or products sold as fuel.
The bill defines the following terms:
●“Advanced recycling facility” means a manufacturing facility that:
○Receives, stores, and converts post-use polymers and recovered
feedstocks that are processed using advanced recycling;
○Is a manufacturing facility subject to applicable Kansas Department of
Health and Environment (KDHE) manufacturing regulations; and
○KDHE could inspect to ensure that post-use polymers are used as a raw
material for advanced recycling and are not refuse or solid waste;
●“Mass balance attribution” means a chain of custody accounting methodology
with rules defined by a third-party certification system that enables the attribution
of the mass of advanced recycling feedstocks to one or more advanced recycling
products;
●“Post-use polymer” means a plastic that:
○Is derived from any industrial, commercial, agricultural, or domestic
activities and includes pre-consumer recovered materials and post-
consumer materials;
○Has been sorted from solid waste and other regulated waste but may
contain residual amounts of waste such as organic material and incidental
contaminants or impurities;
○Is not mixed with solid waste or hazardous waste on site or during
processing at the advanced recycling facility;
○Is used or intended to be used as a feedstock for the manufacturing of
feedstocks, raw materials, or other immediate products or final products
using advanced recycling; and
Kansas Legislative Research Department 1 2023 Summary of Legislation ○Is processed at an advanced recycling facility or held at such facility prior
to processing;
●“Recovered feedstock” means one or more of the following materials that has
been processed so that it may be used as feedstock in an advanced recycling
facility:
○Post-use polymers; or
○Materials for which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made
a non-waste determination or has otherwise determined are feedstocks
and not solid waste;
●“Recycled plastics” means products that are produced:
○From mechanical recycling of pre-consumer recovered feedstocks or
plastics and post-consumer plastics; or
○From the advanced recycling of pre-consumer recovered feedstocks or
plastics and post-consumer plastics through mass balance attribution
under a third-party certification system; and
●“Third-party certification system” means an international and multi-national third-
party certification system that consists of a set of rules for the implementation of
mass balance attribution approaches for advanced recycling of materials. Third-
party certification systems include, but are not limited to:
○International sustainability and carbon certification;
○Underwriter Laboratories;
○SCS recycled content;
○Roundtable on sustainable biomaterials;
○Ecoloop; and
○REDcert2.
Exceptions
The bill adds an exception to the definition of solid waste for post-use polymers and
recovered feedstocks that are converted at an advanced recycling facility or held at such a
facility prior to conversion through an advanced recycling process.
The bill exempts advanced recycling facilities from the definitions of solid waste
management system, solid waste processing facility, and waste-to-energy facility.
Kansas Legislative Research Department 2 2023 Summary of Legislation