The proposed legislation calls for the marking of tires sold in Vermont to determine and to identify tires sold within the state’s borders.
“Finding a viable method for marking tires is a best questionable,” John Falardeau, RMA state legislative manager, said at a Vermont Senate Transportation Committee hearing earlier this week. “If a marking system were to be created, it could very likely be copied and used to mark out-of-state tires, which would defeat the intention of this legislation to mark only tires sold in Vermont. Branding the tire at the manufacturing point would mean the creation of Vermont-only tires and opens up the potential for other states enacting similar customization.”
The bill would also require the Agency of Transportation to contract for the collection of scrap tires from solid waste management facilities throughout the state and for the delivery of shredded scrap tires to the agency for civil engineering projects.
“This provision raises many technical concerns, such as the impact on the efficiency of a company’s ability to collect and process the tires from these drop-off centers,” Falardeau said. “A collection process as outlined in the bill is laborious, and the relatively small numbers of tires collected will inflate the cost of transporting scrap tires. Thus, scrap tires may remain at these locations for considerably long periods of time.”
RMA noted concern with requirements that regional garages or waste management facilities must accept marked scrap tires at no cost and a mandate that the entity that contracts with the Agency of Transportation to accept and collect marked scrap tires free of charge.
The association is also concerned that the number of scrap tires generated in Vermont yearly is to small to be effectively employed in the civil engineering projects proposed. The state currently generates roughly 600,000 tires yearly, about half the number needed to effectively employ scrap tires in civil engineering and related projects.