DENVER (April 15, 2010)—The Colorado Senate Transportation Committee unanimously has approved a bill, already passed by the state House of Representatives, to reform and strengthen Colorado's scrap tire abatement laws.
Currently Colorado charges a fee of $1.50 on each new tire sold in the state, ostensibly for cleanup and market development for scrap tires. However, the Rubber Manufacturers Association said, too much of the Colorado scrap tire fund is diverted to other purposes. The result is that Colorado, with an estimated 60 million tires stockpiled within its borders, has the worst scrap tire problem of any state in the U.S., the RMA said.
The bill would mandate the placement of more of the scrap tire fund directly into scrap tire activities. It would consolidate all scrap tire programs under the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment; establish new regulations covering market development, fire prevention, scrap tire haulers and scrap tire facilities; close loopholes in the current law that allow the proliferation of scrap tire dumping; and create an advisory committee to review the state's scrap tire abatement efforts.
The legislation is the result of eight months of negotiation between all major scrap tire stakeholders in Colorado, the RMA said in a statement.
It now goes to the state's Senate Finance Committee for consideration.