WASHINGTON-The 2-year-old National Association of Scrap Tire Processors has merged with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.
The NASTP executive committee and the ISRI board of directors voted unanimously Sept. 10 to transform the scrap tire processors' group into the Tire & Rubber Division and Scrap Tire Processors Chapter of ISRI.
The vote was taken at ISRI's Fall Membership Conference.
Joining with ISRI should prove a major boon to the Tire & Rubber Division's approximately 15 processor members, according to NASTP President Bill Vincent.
``It gives companies engaged in the tire processing business access to ISRI's many resources, provides a business and networking forum and gives us a strong voice in Washington, D.C.,'' Vincent said in an ISRI news release.
Speaking from his business, Colt Inc. Scrap Tire Centers in Scott, La., Vincent made it plain that all these things are very important to the members of the former NASTP.
Vincent, who co-founded the organization in October 1999 with Norman Emanuel of Baltimore-based Emanuel Tire, said NASTP members seek ``a place at the table''-something they feel they've been denied-when scrap tire laws and regulations are written.
The NASTP's mission is twofold, according to its newsletter:
* to ``develop industry standards and solutions with a uniform strategy to promote and advance the scrap tire processing industry,'' and
* to ``educate and inform national, state and local government agencies and the public to the environmentally beneficial uses of processed scrap tires.''
ISRI, which started working on scrap tire issues in 1987, hopes to attract more tire processor members to the institute with the establishment of the Tire & Rubber Division.
``The leaders of ISRI worked closely with the leaders of NASTP to map out this new structure, and both groups realized early on that the tire processors were a natural fit within ISRI,'' ISRI President Robin Wiener said in the Sept. 20 release.
With the creation of the Tire & Rubber Division and the Scrap Tire Processors Chapter, ISRI now has four divisions and 22 chapters, according to the association. The organization's other divisions are for ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and paper, and the other chapters represent 20 geographical regions and a national chapter for the paper stock industry.