Bill boosting Tennessee’s matchmaker role for recycling programs and private buyers advances

Lawmakers on Wednesday advanced a bill bolstering the state’s role in connecting recycling programs with private companies looking to purchase recycled materials.

But legislators once again shelved the Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act, a bill that would fund recycling infrastructure improvements through dues paid by private companies, for a second year of summer study. 

Tennessee’s landfills are inching closer to capacity, ramping up the pressure on elected officials to divert recyclable waste.

Businesses in the state have said they are willing to purchase more recycled material — particularly easily recycled aluminum — if the state can produce enough of it. Tennessee is currently ranked 48th out of 50 states in recycling.

“We’ve heard from private industry about the difficulty sourcing recyclable materials, and we’ve heard from communities collecting materials about their struggle to find reliable buyers,” said Sen. Shane Reeves, who chairs the state’s Solid Waste Task Force. “Other states in the region have developed robust recyclable material work marketplaces, and it’s time for Tennessee to compete for those investments.”

Reeves, a Rutherford County Republican, sponsored a bill modernizing the state’s existing Office of Cooperative Marketing for Recyclables within Tennessee’s Department of Environment and Conservation. The office would essentially house the state’s recycling marketplace, maintaining a directory of regional buyers and recycling programs and keeping a database and inventory of materials available in the state.

Bipartisan Tennessee bill would bring recycling to all homes, paid for by private business

The bill would also create an advisory council to assess Tennessee’s current recycling marketplace and recommend ways to recruit businesses, educate the public on recyclable packaging and drive economic activity. 

Seventeen voting members would sit on the council, including representatives from private industry, the legislature, state departments, local waste officials, a conservation organization, and recycling associations and companies. The group would sunset in 2030, unless continued by the General Assembly.

The council’s initial report would be due by Dec. 31.

The legislation cleared the state Senate’s Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday and is now headed for a full Senate vote. The bill’s state House equivalent, sponsored by Solid Waste Task Force Co-Chair Rep. Chris Todd, must move through the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee before it can advance to the floor.

Waste to Jobs Act work continues

The effort to establish an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model for packaging in Tennessee is not over. 

The model would require companies that produce packaging products to form and pay dues to an independent, nonprofit “Producer Responsibility Organization” that would use the money to improve recycling infrastructure and education. The Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act’s latest iteration would exempt businesses that make less than $10 million in annual revenue.

While the model has been used internationally for years, the handful of states that have adopted EPR for packaging are still in the early stages of implementation, and the bill has seen pushback from the National Waste and Recycling Association.

Lawmakers have been mulling over the model for Tennessee since at least 2024, when Democratic Sen. Heidi Campbell and Democratic Rep. Torrey Harris introduced a similar bill. Campbell and fellow Nashville Democrat Rep. Bob Freeman introduced the Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act in 2025.

This year, Morristown Sen. Steve Southerland and Smithville Rep. Michael Hale, both Republicans, took up the mantle as co-sponsors, and the bill saw buy-in from a handful of other Republican lawmakers.

Southerland announced Wednesday that he did not plan to advance the bill this session, noting his “goal is to get people to work together.”

Reeves acknowledged that solid waste is “rapidly becoming a massive crisis” in Tennessee and “everything needs to be on the table.”

“Today is progress, not perfection,” Reeves said. “We’re continuing to make progress on this, and I’m committed to continue to work on this over the summer and make it part of a larger solution as we move forward.”