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Recycling, seen as a key environmental priority, has seen its star rise in recent years, of which related bills are being updated. On January 22, 2021, in Virginia, legislation to classify chemical recycling as manufacturing rather than solid waste management is being presented to the governor, which is a boost to foam recycling.

Supporters of the bill say that advanced recycling is a key technology to remove plastics from the waste stream, and the reuse of plastic wastes can create jobs, otherwise, these wastes will be difficult or impossible to recycle. While environmental groups do not agree that this will make the fledgling industry avoid important Virginia’s Solid Waste Management Act, the legislation still passed the House on a 90-8 vote. Therefore, in the future of Virginia, foam recycling will become an emerging industry full of potential.

Advanced recycling, sometimes called chemical recycling, is a generic term for the use of heat or another catalyst to break down plastics to the molecular level in order to create new products using the "cornerstone." To be blunt, this principle is similar to that of a foam densifier, which uses heat to destroy the foam molecular structure, and turns the foam into a compressed foam block, thus making home decoration products.

With advanced recycling, “We think that we can recover 65 percent of Virginia’s 1.3 million tons of plastic waste in landfills per year, extending the life of landfills,” Virginia Manufacturers Association president and CEO Brett Vassey.