USTMA meets with EPA officials, touts commitment to sustainability

WASHINGTON — Members and staff of the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) met with officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina in October to assist with the agency's residual risk and technology review of air emissions from tire plants, the USTMA said.

The parties met to discuss the EPA's plans to issue a proposed rule on hazardous air pollution emissions from tire facilities by 2018, with a final rule by 2020, the USTMA said.

USTMA members and staff helped EPA officials review data provided by the tire industry and told them about the work the USTMA members have done voluntarily to collect emissions data from their facilities, the association said.

Disclosure of the USTMA-EPA meeting came one day after the release of an article by Sarah Amick, USTMA vice president, environment, health, safety & sustainability and senior counsel, touting the USTMA's record on sustainability and environmental progress.

"[The] USTMA is committed to working collaboratively with the agency to provide industry information to assist the agency in completing its review," it said.

The USTMA and its members continue to emphasize corporate sustainability despite current deregulatory policies in Washington, Ms. Amick wrote.

"Corporate sustainability initiatives spark innovation and environmental progress as sustainability requires companies to go beyond ordinary compliance with the law," she wrote. "For the U.S. tire manufacturing industry, sustainability is a driving force."

The USTMA's leadership in reducing scrap tire stockpiles by 93 percent — to 67 million in 2015 from more than 1 billion in 1990 — is a hallmark of the association's sustainability and environmental efforts, according to Ms. Amick.

Also, all USTMA members participate in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Tire Industry Project, which works to identify and address the potential health and environmental impacts of materials associated with tire manufacturing and use, she said.

"USTMA member companies continue to grow their commitments by embedding sustainability principles into their core business," Ms. Amick wrote.

"In addition to individual company efforts, USTMA members are hard at work to develop a shared sustainability vision for the future that encompasses product performance and innovation, tire materials, environmental stewardship, scrap tires, worker safety and corporate citizenship," she said.