New York Creates Fee to Cover Scrap Tire Costs

Lynn Schenkman

Washington, D.C. -- Following five years of persuasion, the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA) has been victorious in influencing New York State to establish a fund for scrap-tire recycling initiatives. The state has enacted a scrap-tire recycling law, creating a $2.50 fee on all new tires sold. A portion of the fee will go toward statewide clean-up efforts and toward establishing end-use markets for scrap tires. According to the RMA, New York has approximately 40 to 50 million stockpiled scrap tires.

The fee takes effect Oct. 1 and is expected to raise $28 million through March 31, 2004, but the RMA has expressed disappointment that only $8.125 million of the new-tire fund will go toward scrap-tire recycling. Gov. George Pataki vetoed the law but was overridden by the legislature. An earlier proposal by the governor also placed a $2.50 fee on new tires but would have had 80 percent of the funds directed to the state’s general fund to help alleviate New York’s deficit.