NASHVILLE (Aug. 19, 2009) — The Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation's Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste Management is planning to establish a Scrap Tire Task Force to address problems and complaints with the state's waste tire disposal and cleanup grant programs.
Under Tennessee law, tire dealers collect $1.35 for each new tire sold to fund a waste tire grant program. The department then pays grant money to county governments in exchange for their contracting with registered disposal companies to handle the tires gathered by dealers.
However, some counties have been taking losses in the program because, according to the state, tire manifests and other records show that some dealers aren't collecting sufficient fees given the volume of scrap tires they're sending for disposal.
The task force process currently is in its infancy, according to Don Hyman, president of Hyman's Tire Service L.L.C. in Bolivar, Tenn., and legislative liaison for the Tennessee/Kentucky Tire Dealers & Retreaders Association. All the members of the task force have yet to be named, he said, but they will include representatives of all stakeholders in the scrap tire program, including tire dealers, scrap tire collectors, county governments and the department itself.
“The state is trying to study the issue from the standpoint of all interested parties,” Mr. Hyman said. He said he expected the first meeting to take place sometime in the fall.