The California Assembly has passed a bill creating a program that sets a 75-percent recycling target for scrap tires within the state. The bill, Assembly Bill 2908, directs the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to develop an incentive system to make payments to entities that purchase waste tire material to use in making products for end-users. The bill is supported by the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association and environmental groups but opposed by some in the tire dealer community.
While the new incentive program will be funded from California’s scrap tire fee of $1.75 on every new tire sold, AB 2908 also allows CalRecycle to charge an extra fee of up to $1 per tire if the state’s tire fund is depleted. AB 2908 now goes to California Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.
California generates about 44 million scrap tires every year, according to Assemblyman Marc Berman, who sponsored the bill. “Incentivizing the remanufacturing of used tires into consumer products and pavement materials makes sense for the environment, jobs, public health and our bottom line,” Mr. Berman said.
The environmental organization Californians Against Waste backed AB 2908. “California’s tire recycling rate has been far too low for far too long,” said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for the group. “Providing incentive payments to end-users of recycled materials is among the most cost-effective ways to increase recycling, and it has been proven to work across different material types.”
The incentive program replaces California’s Rubber Pavement Market Development Act, which provided grants to municipalities for rubberized asphalt road projects.
Read the full story at http://www.tirebusiness.com/article/20180829/NEWS/180829937/california-legislature-passes-scrap-tire-incentive-program.