Convention focuses on scrap tire problems. (scrap tire symposium at the Louisville Retreaders' Conference and Trade Show)(Scrap Tire Solutions)

Convention focuses on scrap tire problems

The scrap tire symposium was a major focal point of interest at the recent Louisville Retreaders' Conference and Trade Show.

Crowds of more than 500 packed a large meeting room for each of the three sessions to hear 19 speakers discuss the scrap tire disposal problem.

Among highlights of the sessions were the following:

On scrap tire legislation:

Keith Rowbotham, executive director of the Northwest Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association, said involvement of all interest groups is essential in passage of effective legislation to regulate scrap tire disposal.

Rowbotham worked with legislators in two states -- Oregon and Washington -- on scrap tire bills with startlingly different results.

In Oregon a broad cross section of interest groups formed a task force, chaired by Rowbotham, to recommend legislation.

The result was a proposal to put a $1 tax on new tires at the retail level and to use the money for rebates to those who burn or recycle scrap tires.

This promoted rapid growth in the use of shredded tire chips in paper and pulp mill operations and other applications.

Rowbotham said this recycling is growing and there's a backlog of orders for this tire-derived fuel large enough to use up another 175,000 tires.

In Washington, Rowbotham reported, a similar bill recommended by another broad-based committee passed the state House of Representatives, but was killed by the chairman of the Senate's Transportation Committee.

Bob Smith, executive director of the North Carolina Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association, was instrumental in organizing a coalition of various trade …