Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act
0:00 — Senator Heidi Campbell
So Hey there, I'm State Senator Heidi Campbell from the state of Tennessee, and I'm so glad to be here today talking about the Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act.
0:15 — Senator Campbell
We're trying to pass the first EPR bill in a red state, and I'll let Gary introduce himself.
0:22 — Gary Cohen
I’m Gary Cohen and I am a packaging consultant. I have 40 years in the packaging industry, and the reason I am here today is because there is approximately 38 million tons of packaging, packaging that I have been involved with, over the years that ends up in a landfill. Just in Tennessee we probably go ahead and throw away over a million tons.
0:42 — Gary Cohen
So we see economic opportunity. To take that packaging that is currently being thrown and recycle it and save the taxpayers of Tennessee money. And put it to good use and create jobs.
0:56 — Gary Cohen
And we're in a unique position because we have our landfills at capacity, so we sort of have that anvil hanging over our heads, and we have a state that is very interested in economic development. So we are really modeling this to be a red state bill — we’re calling it “Tennessee Waste to Jobs,” juxtaposed to making it more environmentally focused.
1:19 — Gary Cohen
And you know it's been a campaign. I mean, we're going around the state, we have put together a video with some statewide companies that want the materials.
1:29 — Senator Campbell
Tennessee uniquely happens to touch more states than any other state in the country, and we're right in the hotbed of a group of states who don't recycle and have similar issues.
1:41 — Senator Campbell
So it's really an incredible first-mover opportunity to be the first Republican state to pass this and to generate jobs, generate material aggregation and distribution, and solve some very serious problems that we're facing.
1:58 — Gary Cohen
The reason Waste to Jobs is such a great bill for businesses and producers is because, you know, EPR is obviously coming to the United States. This is going to be the best possible bill that any brand could want because it's the most under-regulatory bill.
2:14 — Gary Cohen
Basically this legislation just establishes the opportunity to create the PRO. And the rulemaking is done subsequent to that, and I know that brands want to be involved in that conversation.
2:23 — Gary Cohen
And I think that's important because truly circular economy means the government needs to get out of the way as much as possible so that everybody wins.
2:32 — Gary Cohen
And I echo Senator Campbell — we are actively soliciting folks to come to the table to talk to us, your concerns. The only way that we go ahead and handle the problem is do it jointly.
2:46 — Gary Cohen
We need them — the brands — to come and sit at the table with us, tell us what their concerns are, and that way we can work out a situation where it’s a triple win.
2:58 — Gary Cohen
It’s a win for the business, it’s a win for the environment, and it’s a win for the Tennessee taxpayers.
3:04 — Gary Cohen
Just to touch on that — the fact that we would be the first red state, I think what we have seen is EPR pass in seven basically blue states. Now, you can call a couple of the states purple, but we are definitely deep red.
3:17 — Gary Cohen
And the way we would do things in a deep red state is slightly different than what would be done in a blue state. So we are taking — and have taken — the economic approach: getting businesses involved, getting businesses excited.
3:31 — Gary Cohen
The aluminum industry is extremely important in Tennessee. It employs tens of thousands of people. It's a $10 billion industry in Tennessee.
3:42 — Gary Cohen
They are in need of the aluminum cans. We throw away almost 85% of aluminum cans. These folks, who are now paying tariffs because two-thirds of the aluminum for Tennessee production has to come from Canada — tariffs are impacting them.
3:58 — Gary Cohen
And you know they're standing by and we're watching them throw away the stuff. So they have helped fund this video.
4:04 — Gary Cohen
We have a ceramic tile industry in Tennessee — most of the ceramic tile you will see sold in the U.S. is made here because of our ball clay.
4:17 — Gary Cohen
So many of these international companies come to Tennessee and set up shop. We have Florim USA and others — they’ve said on our video that they could use every single glass bottle we throw away. If you've been to downtown Nashville, you know we throw away a lot of glass bottles.
4:34 — Gary Cohen
And we have the plastics industry. KW Plastics is only 250 miles away. All these folks — we have great end markets.
4:44 — Gary Cohen
I would encourage you to go see our video. You can see it on our website at TNWaste2Jobs.com — just click on our 7-minute video. We'd love for you to go ahead and see it, and see what we can do to become a recycling economic powerhouse in the Southeast.
