HELENA, Mont.-The Montana Tire Dealers Association is formulating a scrap tire bill it plans to introduce in the state legislature when the session begins in January. The association decided to write its own bill, modeled after Oregon's ground-breaking scrap tire program, in order to develop legislation tire dealers ``could live with, from a financial standpoint,'' according to MTDA Executive Director Bradley Griffin.
The MTDA's scrap tire committee plans to present the bill to the association membership during the MTDA convention, Jan. 13-14. In the meantime, the committee is still finalizing various aspects of the bill, which will include a proposed $1 increase on vehicle registration fees to underwrite entrepreneurs with tire recycling ideas and projects.
Mass. violator to help clean own tire dump
BRIMFIELD, Mass.-State officials estimate they will spend at least $500,000 to clean up an estimated 750,000 tires at a scrap dealer's dump.
In September 1993, the junk dealer, Carl Trant, 53, began serving an 18-month jail sentence for violation of the state's anti-pollution laws after Mr. Trant said he couldn't come up with the money to clean up the site.
Mr. Trant has been assigned to do cleanup work at the scrap yard as part of a jail work-release program.
David Howland, regional engineer for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said there are between 500,000 and 750,000 tires piled above ground in the scrap yard with more under water in a swampy area.
The state may be able to recoup some of the estimated $1-a-tire cost of cleaning up the junk yard by charging people who dumped tires with Mr. Trant or from recyclers, Mr. Howland said.
Tire recycler's good intentions go awry
RIGGINS, Idaho-A pile of 90,000 tires south of Riggins stands as a testament to good intentions gone awry, say both state regulators and the tire collector.
Ronald Gotzinger said he started collecting tires from tire stores in the Quad Cities area in 1992 to help supply a tire recycling company based in Emmett, Idaho.
The company planned to recycle tires into floor mats, culverts and other items, but in less than a year, that company was out of business.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gotzinger's tire collection business succeeded so well, he had rolled up nearly twice the number of tires he originally intended. But he was unable to afford the equipment needed to shred the tires for recycling.
Now the North Central District Health Department is seeking a grant to clean up the tire pile. The grant would include funds from a $1 fee the state collects for every new tire sold in Idaho.
Mr. Gotzinger said the state funding is the only way the tires will disappear. His year of hauling tires netted him about $3,000 after expenses.
REBOUND put to test in Fla. soccer field
COOPER CITY, Fla.-American Tire Recyclers is conducting a year-long demonstration of its REBOUND soil amendment, which combines crumbed tire rubber with compost, at a soccer field in Florida.
With a $147,000 grant from the state's waste tire fund, the Broward County Parks & Recreation Division, the Office of Integrated Waste Management and the county's Solid Waste Recycling Division will test the features of REBOUND installed in one of three lit soccer fields in Brian Piccolo Park.
ATR claims the REBOUND surface reduces soil compaction enabling turf to wear longer, improving percolation and enhancing softness and resiliency.
ATR and the parks division will monitor and evaluate the REBOUND field through July 1995. As a control measurement for the test, new turf was installed in a second soccer field using conventional materials.
ISRI to expand open hors for '95 show
WASHINGTON-The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. will offer additional open hours for exhibitors during the ISRI's seventh annual convention, March 20-22, at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas.
Open hours for the trade show targeting the scrap recycling industry will feature no other competing convention programs for three hours on the first day and five hours on the second day of the exhibition, the ISRI said.
The annual convention has in previous years attracted 2,000 to 3,000 scrap processors, brokers and consumers of rubber, plastics, paper, scrap metal, glass and textiles, the association said.
For more information on the convention, contact Jim Morgan, ISRI director of membership services, at (202) 662-8531.
ECO2 acquires stake in medical waste firm
HAWTHORNE, Fla.-ECO2 Inc. has invested $2 million to acquire 25-percent ownership in Recovery Corp. of America, a privately-held medical waste collection and incineration business.
ECO2 has the option to purchase another 25 percent of the firm within two years at 90 percent of market value or for $3 million, whichever is less.
Also under the deal, ECO2 has the right to build tire recycling plants on Recovery's properties in Detroit, Charlotte, N.C., Kenosha, Wis., and Cocoa, Fla., under rent-free, 20-year leases.
In addition, ECO2 has the right of first refusal to apply its pyrolysis technology to any expansion instituted by Recovery at any of its medical waste processing facilities.
In 1993, Recovery reported $12 million in revenues.