Protecting Public Health and Unleashing American Energy by Facilitating Scrap Tire Pile Cleanups

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) is proposing to improve protection of public health and recover valuable energy and mineral resources by designating scrap tires, including previously abandoned scrap tires, that are combusted in cement kilns, as non-waste fuel. In addition, the EPA is proposing to revise the definition of established tire collection program to include abandoned scrap tires that are recovered for use as fuel so they can be managed the same as collected scrap tires. These proposed regulatory changes support several goals of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) by facilitating the use of abandoned scrap tires as a non-waste fuel and ingredient in Portland cement manufacturing while simultaneously reducing risks to human health and addressing environmental harms caused by tire piles. These proposed revisions are amendments to the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials (NHSM) regulations, which establish standards and procedures for identifying whether non- hazardous secondary materials are solid wastes when legitimately used as fuels or ingredients in combustion units.