Nebraska Agency Changing Regulations for Tire Processors

The Nebraska Environmental Quality Council voted 12-0 to approve changes in the state’s scrap tire laws that were passed by the state legislature last year. The NEQC voted March 5 to approve the change. According to Bill Gidley with the agency, the rules will be passed to the state Attorney’s General office and then to the Governor’s office where it would then be signed into law. Gidley estimates the change could begin by early this fall.

According to the Nebraska Environmental Quality Council the changes will reduce the cost in terms of application fees and financial assurance for waste tire collectors and processors as permits are no longer required.

Processors will no longer have to submit reports but must maintain certain records. The only permitted entity will be waste tire haulers who will no longer have to pay a permit application fee (previously $100.00) but will have an increase in financial assurance from $2,500.00 to either $5,000.00 or $10,000.00 depending on the number of tires hauled per year.

Waste tire haulers that also recycle or process waste tires will be required to provide additional financial assurance based on the number of waste tires anticipated to be managed at any one time. Waste tires that have been processed into crumb rubber will be exempt from the financial assurance requirements.

The goal of the change in policy is to ensure that some of the large tire piles that have been amassed in the state will be lessened. According to Gidley, the change in policy mandates that tire processors would have to reduce by 75 percent their existing tire piles.

In an article by the Omaha World Herald, Larry Schmitz of Nebraska Rubber Innovations said that about half of the tires that recyclers collect cannot be used for marketable products These are the tires that recyclers want to bale for use in civil engineering projects, such as roadbeds. Without that outlet, Schmitz said, the recyclers must pay to dispose of the tires.

While putting significant pressure on the roughly dozen tire processors in the state, Nebraska does have available money dedicated to tire recycling projects. The first $1 million in solid waste grants awarded by the department go to tire recycling