ISRI Urges EPA Not to Re-Define Scrap Tires

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, D.C., is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not to adopt proposed rules that include what it calls “an overly broad definition of solid waste for non-hazardous secondary materials used as legitimate alternative fuels for energy.”

The EPA’s proposed rules “will have a significant impact on the scrap recycling industry generally and specifically to the recycling of scrap tires,” ISRI writes in a news release.

ISRI says its core regulatory position has always been “scrap is not waste, and recycling is not disposal.”

If adopted, the rule change would affect the ability of scrap tire processors to manufacture tire derived fuel (TDF), which ISRI calls “a specification-grade commodity that consumes nearly 50 percent of all scrap tires generated in the United States.”

In its news release, ISRI also states its preference would be “to have these scrap tires recycled and used in products such as rubberized asphalt, landscaping mulch and other crumb rubber products. Unfortunately, due to the delicate balance of supply and demand, this is not always possible, and in order to ensure an environmentally responsible alternative to disposal of scrap tires, many of them are used as an alternative energy source.”

“ISRI is in strong opposition to this new regulation that EPA is proposing,” says ISRI President Robin Wiener. “If this rule change was implemented, the affects would be devastating on the industry and the environment.”