The California Integrated Waste Management Board approved $1.7 million in grants to increase end markets for scrap tires.
"This funding package will help companies change how California views waste tires," said Board Chair Margo Reid Brown. "By making tire derived products mainstream in all communities with such products as school playgrounds and landscaping rubber bark we are helping our environment and protecting our health."
Fourteen grants from its Tire Recycling Management Fund were approved by the CIWMB to help firms purchase equipment to expand and speed up the conversion of California waste tires into crumb rubber feedstock.
Allocated through the Board's Tire-Derived Product Business Assistance Program, the money can be used by grantees for various operational activities, including upgrading daily working efficiencies and product marketing, helping "mainstream" manufacturers substitute recycled rubber over virgin raw materials, transferring technologies and using applied research to further recycle waste tires, expanding product lines and encouraging major retailers' and manufacturers' suppliers and Original Equipment Manufacturers to use more recycled-content products. In general, the Board's BAP can assist grantees in all workplace categories, including technical, marketing, testing and equipment acquisition.
Many of the businesses receiving the grants formerly took in crumb rubber from Canada, Utah and Arizona.
The Board approved funding allocations to the following companies:
B.A.S. Recycling, Inc. San Bernardino San Bernardino $175,000
Central Valley Ag Grinding Oakdale Stanislaus $50,000
Delta Marketing, Inc. Corona Riverside $50,000
Eco-Blok, LLC Newbury Park Ventura $50,000
Holz Rubber Company, Inc. Lodi San Joaquin $175,000
Lakin Tire West, Inc. Santa Fe Springs Los Angeles $175,000
Magic Plastics, Inc. Valencia Los Angeles $175,000
Mercer-Fraser Company Eureka Humboldt $50,000
National Sales and Supply, LLC Stockton San Joaquin $175,000
Robertson Industries, Inc. dba TotTurff Irwindale Los Angeles $175,000
Rubber Wholesalers, Inc. Mentone San Bernardino $175,000
Safe Guard Sports Corporation of California San Fernando Los Angeles $50,000
Spectra Systems, Inc. Corona Riverside $175,000
West Pac Hawaii Agency, Inc. Mission Viejo Orange $50,000
The CIWMB also has approved $1.6 million in incentive grants to support and promote the use of rubberized asphalt concrete.
Funds from the Board's Targeted Rubberized Asphalt Concrete Incentive Grant Program help first-time and/or limited experience RAC users cover the difference in costs of using RAC in lieu of conventional asphalt paving materials. The program is funded from the $1.75 fee the state collects on the sale of each new tire in California. The CIWMB receives $1.00 of this amount. The remaining portion of the tire fee is used by the California Air Resources Board to fund tire-related air emission programs.
The Board approved funding allocations to the following cities:
City of Orinda $175,000
City of Palo Alto $175,000
City of Moreno Valley $150,000
City of Pinole $175,000
Town of Moraga $175,000
City of San Dimas $150,000
City of Bakersfield $150,000
City of Cypress $150,000
City of Yucaipa $148,760
City of Rohnert Park $120,200
City of Solana Beach $53,000