TIA issues scrap tire position paper

BOWIE, Md. (Feb. 13, 2015) — The Tire Industry Association (TIA) supports a “competitive, market-based system” to manage the flow of scrap tires and scrap tire material, the trade group states in a position paper issued this week.

The free enterprise system of scrap tire management is highly successful today, TIA said in the position paper, with a scrap tire recovery rate approaching 90 percent.

TIA, together with its Environmental Action Council (EAC), drafted the position paper, “Scrap Tires and Producer Responsibility.”

 TIA felt it necessary to issue the position paper now because of legislation in a few states that would shift the responsibility for managing scrap tires to manufacturers, according to TIA Executive Vice President Roy Littlefield.

Some of these bills create “tire stewardship” programs that would impede the free flow of scrap tires to selected markets.

“TIA supports a competitive, free-market system that does not interfere with the free flow of scrap tire recyclable materials,” Mr. Littlefield said.

One such bill in Connecticut, S.B. No. 869, is opposed by TIA as well as by the Rubber Manufacturers Association and other tire groups. The Connecticut Senate Environment Committee plans a Feb. 13 hearing on the bill, TIA said.