California assembly passes tire recycling bill

The California State Assembly voted Aug. 27 to pass Assembly Bill (AB) 2908 by Assemblymember Marc Berman. The vote to concur in assembly amendments comes on the heels of the bill’s passage in the State Senate Aug. 23 and marks the final step before the bill heads to the governor.

AB 2908 directs the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to develop an incentive payment system to fund recycling end uses for waste tires. AB 2908 also sets a 75 percent recycling target for waste tires, nearly double the current rate, and updates the state’s tire manifest system. While the new incentive program will be funded from the state’s existing tire fee ($1.75), the legislation also allows CalRecycle to assess a charge on the sale of new tires (not to exceed $1) to continue funding the regulatory activities of the department.

AB 2908 is the third attempt in four years to reform the state’s tire recycling system. This policy was previously introduced by Assembly Member Rich Gordon (AB 1239 in 2015) and Assembly Member Jim Frazier (AB 509 in 2017), but both measures stalled in the legislative process.

“Californians generate 44 million used tires every single year, and the illegal dumping of tires is costly to clean up and can be a danger to the environment and public health,” Berman says. “Incentivizing the remanufacturing of used tires into consumer products and pavement material makes sense for the environment, jobs, public health and our bottom line.”

“California’s tire recycling rate has been far too low for far too long. Providing incentive payments to end-users of recycled materials is among the most cost effective ways to increase recycling, and it has been proven to work across different material types,” Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste, the Sacramento, California-based nonprofit organization that sponsored the bill, says. “Furthermore, a complete overhaul of the state’s tire recycling program is certain to have an impact on all the stakeholders in the existing recycling infrastructure, so we especially commend Assemblymember Berman and his staff for their dedication to working with everyone along the supply chain, from the manufacturers who make tires, to the tire dealers that sell them, to the haulers that transport the waste tires, to the processors that shred and grind them, to those who make new products out of those materials and, finally, to end purchasers of these products. That is no small feat.”

Gov. Jerry Brown has until the end of September to sign or veto AB 2908.