Kansas considers eliminating tire recycling grants

Legislators in the state of Kansas are discussing a bill that would reduce the tax that funds grants to support tire recycling in the state and eliminate the agency that distributes those grants.

An online article prepared by the Salina Post says the proposed bill would “abolish the solid waste grants advisory committee, the group that specializes in cleanup of tire stockpiles and market development for recycled tires.”

The state’s legislators also are considering a reduction in the tax on new tire purchases in the state from 25 cents to 15 cents.

The article quotes a deputy secretary from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) as saying the grant program is no longer needed the way it was “in the early years to get [tire recycling] momentum going.”

An opposing viewpoint was provided to the Post by Spencer Duncan, executive director of the Kansas Organization of Recyclers (KOR), who criticizes the KDHE stance. “They’re telling you this has been such a successful program, it’s time for it to go away,” Duncan told the Post. “We’re arguing that it’s such a successful program you should be trumpeting from the mountaintops about what a great thing this has been for such a low fee.”

The newspaper also contacted Gary Champlin of Champlin Tire Recycling Inc., Concordia, Kansas, who is an officer of the Scrap Tire Processors Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). Champlin indicated that the current 25-cents-per-tire tax in Kansas already is the lowest such tax in the nation.