Dive Brief:
- Lawmakers in Tennessee aim to pass an extended producer responsibility for packaging bill this year in an effort to extend the region’s landfill capacity and create local jobs.
- The Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act emphasizes potential economic benefits. It’s a focus that sponsor state Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Democrat, said is critical in a Republican-led state that especially values initiatives that promote small business and manufacturing.
- The newest version of the bill would allow businesses with under $10 million in annual revenue to opt out of the EPR program, which Campbell said would include more than 95% of Tennessee businesses. It would also allow counties with under 200,000 residents to opt out, too.
Dive Insight:
Tennessee’s version of EPR for packaging aims to be seen as a “business-friendly” alternative to EPR programs in some other states, a change from stakeholder approaches that focus on environmental and circular economy-centric messaging, Campbell said in an interview.
The bill’s small business exemption and small county exemption are newer updates that weren’t part of the version Campbell first introduced in 2024. These unique-to-Tennessee provisions aim to appeal to Republican lawmakers who value local control, she said.
The bill still requires counties with higher populations — such as counties where Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville are located — to participate in the EPR program. And major brands in the state would still be required to join a producer responsibility organization and contribute funding for local recycling services and infrastructure. Local governments would receive reimbursements for their waste management services, according to the bill.
“It helps us really focus on the major international brands that are already part of [other] PROs and are already doing EPR in 30% of the world,” she said.
Yet these exemption provisions will likely affect the math on how many jobs and how much economic opportunity an EPR program could bring to Tennessee, she said. One estimate is that it could create more than 7,000 jobs and bring in around $300 million a year for recycling infrastructure spending. Campbell notes that job creation “would be contingent on how many counties opt in,” she said. Business students at Vanderbilt University are working on an economic impact study that could offer more specific estimates, she said.
Meanwhile, a coalition supporting the Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act is continuing to drum up support from local businesses. The bill already has support from local manufacturers Kaiser Aluminum and porcelain tile producer Florim USA, which both are looking for domestic supplies of post-consumer aluminum and glass to avoid imports and lower manufacturing costs.
Other supporters include recycling organizations like The Recycling Partnership and the Association of Plastic Recyclers, along with major brands like Unilever, Mars, Danone and Nestlé and packaging producers such as Atlantic Packaging.
But Campbell said some of the state’s waste haulers, as well as groups like the National Waste and Recycling Association, aren’t on board with the bill.
During a Jan. 14 Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources committee meeting, NWRA CEO Michael E. Hoffman testified that the state should avoid EPR for packaging “at all costs” because it would create administrative burdens for the state and “double or triple” costs for recycling. “You do not improve recovery rates, you don't improve secondary markets. You don't improve design for recycling,” he told the committee.
Though bill messaging has centered on Tennessee’s economy, Campbell said the region’s quickly dwindling landfill capacity is a major driver of the bill, too.
An EPR for packaging program would help divert recycled materials away from strained landfills and into the state’s existing MRFs, Campbell said. It would also provide more funding to upgrade Tennessee’s MRFs, many of which are operated at the county level and still sort recyclables by hand.
Jeremy Hooper, an advisor for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said during the Jan. 14 meeting that the state’s growing population is outpacing available landfill space. The state’s Class I landfills that accept MSW have about 10 years left in the eastern and western parts of the state, while landfills in the middle of the state are quickly reaching capacity. Communities are less and less receptive to expanding these existing landfills, he said.
Local control policies like the state’s Jackson Law have contributed to blocking state landfill projects, he added. The law, which municipalities and counties can opt into, prohibits certain landfill construction activities in their jurisdiction without local approval. The Jackson Law has the support of environmental groups like the Sierra Club.
Larger landfills looking to expand capacity in the state are also facing roadblocks. Officials in the city of Murfreesboro sued BFI Waste Systems of Tennessee, a subsidiary of Republic Services, in December, over the company’s plan to expand the Middle Point Landfill. Local officials say they did not get to provide input on the expansion proposal.
Though the EPR for packaging bill is tailor-made for the state’s needs, it also contains provisions familiar to other states’ EPR programs. It would require the state undergo a needs assessment and also establish a 20-member advisory board to oversee the PRO, review recycling policies and recommend improvements. The bill also calls for the PRO to set performance goals for recycling, composting and waste reduction based on insight from the needs assessment and advisory board.
Tennessee is in the second of a two-year legislative session, and Campbell said the clock is ticking to advance the bill. The session adjourns April 24.
“Even in blue states, we saw that it took several years to build the support that they needed to get an EPR bill across the finish line,” she said. “With the nightmare that we're starting to see coming down the pike in Tennessee with landfill capacity, it will hopefully become more and more apparent to people that EPR is a solution that could actually make a difference.”
