Governor Ned Lamont signed legislation earlier this month that will now mandate tire producers shoulder responsibility for their products from manufacturing through post-consumer use. Lamont signed the legislation, HB 6486, requiring manufacturers to abide by a “stewardship program” to ensure that used tires are properly disposed of and/or recycled.

According to advocates, the goal of the act is to eliminate the discarding of tires in landfills and other sites that could potentially impact the environment and also is intended to curb the growing problem of illegally dumped tires. The legislation also provides transparency regarding how and where used tires are disposed of and will also remove the disposal burden and costs for residents and municipalities.

Former Source Person of the Week, Mad4Trees co-founder, and all-around environmental champion Fran Brady was among those pushing for this legislation and its benefits to consumers. State legislators are crediting Brady as a guiding force behind recently passed legislation to hold tire manufacturers accountable for their products post-consumer.

According to Brady, a coalition of municipal and nonprofit groups collaborated to educate and sway state officials to create and adopt the law.

“I’m part of a large group of concerned people that shows that together can make things happen,” said Brady. “This is a major environmental victory in many aspects. This is about who’s responsible because now, no one is responsible for these scrap tires. Before this law, those burdened with disposal responsibility, which is sometimes us consumers, sometimes the tire dealers, but it comes down to ‘Can I spend the money to dispose of these tires properly?’ Consumers have to pay a transfer station or tire dealer, those people have to pay a hauler to take it away, and that doesn’t always occur, and that is why a portion of these tires end up illegally dumped.”

Jennifer Heaton-Jones, executive director for the Housatonic Resources Recovery Association (HRRA), who was also deeply involved in creating and advocating for this legislation, said it is a win for all players in the tire production, supply, and use chain.

“There is a three-fold situation involved here when you look at tires. It comes down to the issues of consumer transparency, cost to municipalities and taxpayers, and then the environmental impact,” said Heaton-Jones. “The most critical aspect, although it all ties in, is that the law will address the lack of consumer transparency that currently exists. Right now, consumers are charged a recycling fee or disposal fee; typically, that is $5 per tire; however, there’s no accountability for that fee. Tires don’t always get recycled, and many are illegally discarded, so consumers pay twice, once for the fee and then again via taxes, to clean up these illegally disposed tires once they go into the environment. The most important and crucial element of the tire bill is sharing this responsibility with the manufacturer. The current system simply doesn’t work, so this bill makes the manufacturer a vested stakeholder in outcome and the solution by creating an actual system that has a built-in mechanism that manufacturers can follow.”

According to Brady and Heaton-Jones, the burden has now been shifted to the manufacturers.

“It’s a complex issue, but it’s really about helping to reduce the tires being dumped into our environment,” said Brady. “And this law is built around the concept of EPR, Extended Producer Responsibility. This law says any supplier or manufacturer who wants to sell in the state of Connecticut must join a stewardship program. The law is another example of Extended Producer Responsibility, and Connecticut is one of the leading states in this. We have an EPR for mattresses, which has been a great success. Last year they instituted EPR for the gas cylinders that we all use. People like Jennifer Heaton-Jones have been advocates for these EPRs and manufacturer responsibility.”

According to Brady, there are several unique positives to the new law, including; no more fees for residents disposing of tires at their respective transfer stations; it ensures the entire supply chain “post use” is mapped out and paid for via the stewardship program, participation is mandatory for all manufacturers and suppliers, and periodic mandatory audits to ensure compliance.

Brady added that the key mandates of the law include; producers must join an authorized stewardship program by January 2025, the plan must ensure all recovered tires are recycled or resold, and that the entire chain of companies involved help in “assisting in marketing development to achieve performance goals.”

One of the few negative aspects of the legislation is that one of the chief buyers of what is known in the industry as “crumb” rubber is the state of Maine, which allows incineration of tire material at paper mills and cement factories, among other entities. Though that state’s program is regulated and has environmental protections in place, it is still fraught with concerns regarding utilizing such toxic materials as fuel. Other uses for this material, according to experts, include utilization for rubberized asphalt, sports fields, track infill, and rubber-molded products.

Heaton-Jones said she is hopeful that as the program develops, it will also inspire new uses and applications for this material rather than sending it out of state to be burned.

“With an EPR policy, all of the costs for that tire from cradle to grave is built in. The mechanism is in place to ensure that the tire is properly disposed of,” said Heaton-Jones. “That is done in a way where no one in the chain gets paid until they can confirm to the stewardship organization has verified the disposal.”

Consumers, in all likelihood, will still pay an upfront fee when purchasing tires, according to Brady, but won’t incur later fees, and they will also be assured that all tires will be disposed of properly. Both Heaton-Jones and Brady also noted how essential tires are to the economy and to our way of life and had praise for manufacturers who were involved in helping craft the legislation.

“Tires are extremely important. They are a great item. They make cars safer and allow us to lead our busy lives,” said Brady. “One of our challenges is to also find other uses for these products and to find replacements for many of the toxic chemicals used in tire manufacturing. So, I am an optimist in that sense. These companies are the ones who understand their product the best, so they have to be part of the solution. And this law can encourage them to engineer their products in a more environmentally friendly way. I’m not naïve, and we recognize the costs will be spread somewhere else, specifically in the upfront costs, but it will be an incentive to these manufacturers to have a cradle-to-grave recycled solution.”

Heaton-Jones added, “We see this as the solution for the end-of-life management. EPR doesn’t require any government funding, which is another critical aspect to the bill. I do think the tire manufacturers have a stake now. This isn’t a good guys versus bad guys type of situation. Anyone who drives a car is obviously dependent on tires. We need these tire manufacturers, and we want them to see and understand the end-of-life management practices, so this is a positive outcome.”

Most Connecticut residents, including those of Madison and Guilford, will still be able to bring their used tires to the transfer station, and there will no longer be a fee for that service when the law goes into effect.