H322641

HQ H322641 November 9, 2023 OT:RR:CTF:EMAIN H322641 PF CATEGORY: Classification TARIFF NO.: 8419.89.95 H. Michael Leightman Partner, Global Trade Practice Ernst & Young LLP 5 Houston Center, Suite 2400 1401 McKinney Street Houston, TX 77010 RE: Tariff classification of a plastic recycling plant Dear Mr. Leightman: This is in reply to your letter of May 27, 2021, submitted on behalf of Eastman Chemical Company, requesting a prospective ruling as to the classification of a plastic recycling plant (“the Plant”) under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Your request was forwarded by the National Commodity Specialist Division (“NCSD”) to this office for a response. Our decision takes into account your May 27, 2021 letter, your responses to questions posed by the NCSD dated September 24, 2021, your responses to questions posed by Headquarters dated August 26, 2022 and March 30, 2023, a meeting held on July 31, 2023 and supplemental information dated August 1, 2023. FACTS: The subject merchandise consists of a plastics recycling plant assembled in a foreign trade zone, which will be entered into the U.S. upon completion of the assembly process. Once assembled and operational, the Plant will recycle post-consumer and post-industrial plastics with high levels of polyethylene terephthalate (“PET”) by refining and reclaiming chemical products such as polymer-grade ethylene glycol (“EG”) and dimethyl terephthalate (“DMT”). The Plant will be constructed using certain domestically sourced and imported components. The facility will subject plastics to a specified series of steps as part of an integrated process to achieve the reclamation of the desired products. The Plant is an integrated combination of twelve units consisting of individual components connected by piping, wiring and structural steel and operate in a continuous flow. You state that the Plant would not function if any of the units were to be disconnected from the whole and that each individual unit is unable to operate independently. The twelve units are a Mixed Plastics Feed Unit, Dissolver Unit, Methanolysis Unit, Spray Tower Unit, Crystallization Unit, Filtration Unit, DMT Refining Unit, Methanol Refining Unit, Low Boiler Column Unit, EG Refining Unit, Methanol Storage Unit and Heavy Co-Product Handling System. The entire plant operation and flow was outlined by Eastman as follows: Trucks from Eastman’s preprocessing facility carry pellets, flakes, and shredded chunks of plastic (the “Raw Materials”) to the Plant, where those Raw Materials are dumped onto a conveyor belt feeding into the Mixed Plastics Feed Unit’s metering device. The metering device regulates the flow of Raw Materials into the Dissolver and provides holdup for a truck’s inventory, allowing the next truck time to unload its Raw Materials onto the conveyor. This allows the Plant to have a continuous feed of Raw Materials flowing through the Plant. The Mixed Plastics Feed Unit feeds Raw Materials into the Dissolver Unit via an airvey system, which consists of a blower and series of rotary airlocks that moves the materials with high pressure ambient air and filters out organic materials and other impurities. In the Dissolver Unit, the Raw Materials melt into a molten liquid that is drained from the bottom of the agitation vessel and pumped via piping into the Dissolver Decanter. As the feed is pumped into the decanter, the lighter polyolefins float to the top and rest on the heavier PET. The olefins are removed by suctioning off the top layer while allowing the heavier layer to drain into piping that pumps the feed to the Methanolysis Unit. In addition to the PET feed from the Dissolver, recycled methanol (in liquid form) is pumped from the Methanol Storage Unit through a preheater and into the Methanolysis Unit, where the methanol is mixed with the molten PET and a catalyst. At this point, the PET breaks down to mostly DMT and EG vapors, which flow out the top of the reactor into the Methanolysis rectifier. The rectifier is used to remove oligomers from the composite stream and does not perform any additional separation. The chemical reaction uses an endothermic reaction in which heat is absorbed during mixing to cause the PET to break down. A sludge of heavy co-products is pumped out of the bottom of the reactor and sent to the Heavy Co-Product Handling System and solidified. The feed, composed now of vapors of EG, DMT, methanol, and byproducts, enters the Spray Tower Unit and cools as it rises through the tower. The Spray Tower Unit removes a concentrated stream of components with a boiling point less than Methanol feeding the stream to the Methanol Refining unit. The Spray Tower further refines the stream to control the Crystallizer feed composition by removing refined Methanol to the Methanol Storage Unit as the vapor overhead of the distillation tower. The DMT and EG leave the tower as liquid (still containing some methanol and byproducts) and flow into the Crystallization Unit, while a portion of the methanol remains vapor and is sent back to the Methanolysis Unit. In the Crystallization Unit, the liquids are cooled before being drained into the Filtration Unit as a crude slurry of DMT crystals, liquid EG and methanol, and other byproducts. This process is accomplished by changes in temperature and pressure, which cause DMT crystals to form. The pressure is rapidly reduce using vacuum pumps, causing accelerated crystallization of much of the remaining liquid DMT. The vapor methanol is condensed in a condenser and routed back to the Methanolysis Unit. The remaining liquids from the spray tower, along with the crystallized DMT, are drained from the crystallizer and fed into the filtration unit where the DMT is separated from the liquid. The molten crude DMT then is pumped into the DMT Refining Unit, where it is distilled into polymer-grade DMT. The DMT is sent to the distillation tower, a melter agitates and heats the slurry which causes the remaining methanol and other lower boiling point contaminants to evaporate. The vapors emitted from the liquid rise through the tower where a reboiler heats the liquid causing it to evaporate. The vapors condense on a series of trays as they cool. The vapor overhead is routed to a scrubber system to distill any remaining useful products. The liquid condensing on the tower trays is liquid, polymer-grade DMT. It is sent to storage vessels to await polymerization. The liquid bottoms are pumped to the Heavy Co-Product Handing System and solidified. The purified recycled DMT content is sent to the DMT storage tanks to be used to create recycle content polymers at a separate facility. The liquid discharge from the Filtration Unit flows into the Methanol Refining Unit, which is a distillation column where methanol is separated from the EG as vapor and is fed back to the Methanol Storage Unit. The liquid from the Methanol Refining Unit continues to the Low Boiler Column and is further distilled, producing concentrated, crude EG as the liquid bottoms and “low boilers” as the vapor overhead. The liquid bottoms flow into the EG Refining Unit, which is another distillation column with multiple trays. The crude EG enters the column and is heated with a reboiler. The portion that condenses at a certain tray is the polymer-grade EG product, which is passed through Adsorption sieves for additional purification. The remaining liquid bottoms is pumped to the Heavy Co-Product Handling System. The refined EG product is sent to an additional distillation column to create refined grade EG product. An additional adsorption step creates the polymer grade EG product to be solidified and disposed. The purified EG is pumped to Storage tank for future use in the creation of recycled content polymers at a separate facility. ISSUE: Whether the Plant is classifiable as a “Distilling or rectifying plant” in subheading 8419.40, HTSUS, or as “Other” machinery, plant or equipment for the treatment 

Merchandise imported into the United States is classified under the HTSUS. Tariff classification is governed by the principles set forth in the General Rules of Interpretation (GRIs) and, in the absence of special language or context which requires otherwise, by the Additional U.S. Rules of Interpretation. The GRIs and the Additional U.S. Rules of Interpretation are part of the HTSUS and are to be considered statutory provisions of law for all purposes.GRI 1 requires that classification be determined first according to the terms of the headings of the tariff schedule and any relative section or chapter notes. In the event that the goods cannot be classified solely on the basis of GRI 1, and if the heading and legal notes do not otherwise require, the remaining GRIs 2 through 6 may then be applied in order. GRI 6 provides that classification of goods at the subheading level will be determined according to the terms of those subheadings and any related subheading notes and, mutatis mutandis, to the preceding GRIs on the understanding that only subheadings at the same level are comparable.The HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:8419 Machinery, plant or laboratory equipment, whether or not electrically heated (excluding furnaces, ovens and other equipment of heading 8514), for the treatment of materials by a process involving a change of temperature such as heating, cooking, roasting, distilling, rectifying, sterilizing, pasteurizing, steaming, drying, evaporating, vaporizing, condensing or cooling, other than machinery or plant of a kind used for domestic purposes; instantaneous or storage water heaters, nonelectric; parts thereof:8419.40 Distilling or rectifying plant* * * Other machinery, plant or equipment:8419.89 OtherIn understanding the language of the HTSUS, the Explanatory Notes (ENs) of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, which constitute the official interpretation of the HTSUS at the international level, may be utilized. T