Waste Board to Step Up Efforts to Clean Up Waste Tires
8 October 1998
Waste Board to Step Up Efforts to Clean Up Waste Tires
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Oct. 7, 1998--The California Integrated Waste Management Board, the State's primary recycling agency, will be able to significantly increase its efforts to rid California of some 15 million old tires thanks to an executive order and legislation signed by Gov. Pete Wilson, Waste Board Chairman Daniel G. Pennington announced today.
Speaking at the Waste Board's third biennial tire conference today, Pennington said the Governor's executive order frees up a $4 million tire fund reserve that the IWMB can now use to address some of the state's most serious waste tire accumulations.
In addition, Pennington noted that the Governor has signed legislation extending the 25-cent fee on new tires that pays for tire cleanup and recycling efforts for another 18 months. These actions will help significantly reduce the number of waste tires piled up around California.
"The Governor's leadership on this important issue demonstrates his strong environmental awareness and concern that Californians will benefit from into the next century," Pennington said. "It is critical that we find a solution to deal with the ongoing problem of what to do with these 'legacy piles,' along with the estimated 30 million waste tires generated each year.
"Cleaning up existing tire piles is critical to protecting public health and the environment, but the long-term solution is to develop sustainable markets that will transform tires from being a problem into being a commodity."
The Tire Conference, held at the Biltmore Hotel today through Friday, brings together experts from California and across the nation to discuss innovative ways to reuse waste tires.
The key piece of tire legislation, AB 117, by Assemblywoman Martha Escutia, D-Bell, extends the sunset date for the fee by 18 months, from June 30, 1999, to January 1, 2001.
Without that change, future funding for the State tire program was uncertain. The bill will help protect California against dangerous, illegal waste tire dumps such as the Royster Tire Pile near Tracy that caught fire in August, burning an estimated 7 million tires. In addition, it allows the Waste Board to continue promoting sustainable markets for tires with financial incentives like grants and loans.
The legislation also requires the Board to submit a waste tire report to the Legislature by June 30, 1999, that provides a statewide overview of the problems associated with waste tires and recommended solutions.
Pennington noted that Governor Wilson signed additional legislation making it a crime to abandon waste tires and giving local governmental agencies more latitude in going after violators.
The bill, AB 228, by Assemblywoman Carole Midgen, D-San Francisco, dovetails with a similar bill by Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, R-Los Olivos (AB 2181), making it a crime to leave tires on unpermitted property. It also allows city and county agencies to exercise Waste Board-designated enforcement authority in regulating waste tires.
Local government agencies can keep fines collected from violations if an attorney representing a city or county office initiates the legal action. And the bill requires tire fine money collected by local governments to be spent on tire enforcement and cleanup programs.
Since 1990, the Board has spent approximately $13.3 million for cleanup and regulation of waste tires, and an additional $11.4 million to created and expand markets for them. Directly, or through enforcement efforts, the Waste Board has cleaned up approximately 12.6 million waste tires.
Waste tires can be used for a variety of purposes, including asphalt, molded rubber products, and as a fuel supplement in cement kilns and electrical power plants.
The six-member Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for protecting the public's health and safety and the environment through management of the 52.5 million tons of solid waste generated in California each year.
The Board's mandate is to work in partnership with local government, industry, and the public to achieve a 50 percent reduction in waste disposed by the year 2000, while ensuring environmentally safe landfill disposal capacity. Currently, California's diversion rate is at an all-time high of 32 percent, exceeding the national average.
The Waste Board is one of six boards and departments within the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA).
Visit the CIWMB on the Internet at www.ciwmb.ca.gov
