EPA Finalizes TDF Rule

The U.S. Protection Agency (EPA) issued a revised rule December 20, 2012 for the use of non-hazardous secondary materials as fuel. Under the original 2011 rule, EPA determined it would not regulate tire-derived fuel (tdf) as a hazardous waste and said that metal-free tdf and “scrap tire obtained under approved tire management programs” qualified as fuel rather solid waste.

The revision expands the definition of approved tire management programs to include the tdf use of tire makers off-specification tires that were never used on vehicle as well as their factory scrap. Also allowed are scrap tires from “public collection program events” such as “amnesty days.” Before, approved programs were those in which scrap tires were managed and collected under state scrap tire laws or corporate management programs.

© Scrap Tire News, February 2013