RMA: Market-Based Approach To Scrap Tire Management "An Environmental Success Story"

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA) said today that the market-based approach to scrap tire management is an environmental success story that should continue to be a model for state action.

RMA is participating in a scrap tire forum at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). Other stakeholders at the forum will urge DEEP to consider a higher cost, less effective effort to manage scrap tires.

National data collect by RMA shows dramatic improvement in scrap tire stockpile clean up and in scrap tire reuse. In 1990, more than one billion tires were stockpiled across the nation while only 10 percent of tires were consumed in end use markets. By 2013, 96 percent of scrap tires were sent to end use markets and only 75 million tires remain in stockpiles.

RMA announced at the forum that it will work with Connecticut legislators and regulators to assess Connecticut's scrap tire concerns and work to advocate a scrap tire management program to address those concerns. RMA has worked with dozens of states over the past 25 years to develop, advocate and implement effective state scrap tire management programs.

Connecticut generates about 3.5 million scrap tires annually. Nearly all are exported to end use markets in other states.

"The free market approach to scrap tire management has produced a phenomenal environmental success story across the US," said Dan Zielinski, RMA senior vice president, public affairs. "Crafting a new approach that is vastly different than existing state programs and that introduces more bureaucracy, cost and inefficiency would be counterproductive."

RMA advocates a multipart approach to scrap tire management that includes:

• A dedicated, time-limited funding source – typically a fee imposed on the sale of new tires
• A system to track scrap tires from generation to end-use market
• Enforcement of scrap tire regulations
• Clean up of stockpiles
• Market development

A forum to discuss scrap tire management issues will be held in Hartford on January 21-22 at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. RMA is participating in the program, which is co-sponsored by the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI).  PSI opposes the market-driven approach to scrap tire management despite the vast success this system has achieved.

"Tire manufacturers have worked across the nation to help establish effective state scrap tire management programs, often funded by user fees on tire sales, to enforce regulations, clean up tire piles and promote environmentally sound, cost-effective markets for scrap tires," Zielinski said. "The numbers tell the story: the effort is paying off in a cleaner environment."

The Rubber Manufacturers Association is the national trade association for tire manufacturers that produce tires in the U.S.  All RMA press releases are available at www.rma.org.

SOURCE Rubber Manufacturers Association