When Connecticut became the first US state to impose an EPR system, it looked like some sort of order was coming to the state waste tyre disposal. However, the reality has been an unseen consequence.
The Connecticut EPR system , as intended, would see consumers pay a recycling fee on every tyre they purchased. This fee was to be used to ensure the proper management of the end-of-life tyres arising in the state.
It seems simple, however, the state’s largest tyre wholesaler sells tyres across New England, and was being hit with Connecticut recycling fees everywhere it sold its tyres, even though those other states had no EPR system in place.
Essentially, the recycling fee was being levied on the tyres sold, not the tyres replaced. This put the wholesaler, Town Fair Tire at a competitive disadvantage outside Connecticut and the company had threatened to relocate to another state to avoid the recycling fees.
Consequentially, the Connecticut House reviewed the system and voted 124-21 to modify the system to allow customers to drop tyres off free of charge at collection points.
Which effectively scuppers the EPR scheme and puts things back where they were before its introduction.
It has not been stated how this impacts tyre wholesalers from outside the state who will be selling tyres into the state?
