Virginia SB 794: Tire stewardship program; established, report.

Bill Text

2025 SESSION

INTRODUCED

25101937D

SENATE BILL NO. 794

Offered January 8, 2025

Prefiled December 28, 2024

A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Chapter 14 of Title 10.1 an article numbered 3.8, consisting of sections numbered 10.1-1425.40 through 10.1-1425.43, relating to tire stewardship program established; report.

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Patron—Head

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Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Chapter 14 of Title 10.1 an article numbered 3.8, consisting of sections numbered 10.1-1425.40 through 10.1-1425.43, as follows:

Article 3.8.

Tire Stewardship Program.

§ 10.1-1425.40. Definitions.

As used in this article, unless the context requires a different meaning:

"Brand" means a name, symbol, word, or mark that attributes a tire to the producer of such tire.

"Covered entity" means any permitted transfer station, tire retailer, car dealership, automotive garage, private or public sector fleet maintenance garage, or other location identified in an approved tire stewardship plan pursuant to § 10.1-1425.41.

"Discarded tire" means any whole tire or whole tire on a rim that a consumer discarded or abandoned, or intends to discard or abandon.

"Performance goals" means annual outcomes proposed by a tire stewardship organization in the tire stewardship plan pursuant to § 10.1-1425.41 that measure the performance of the program, including tire collection and diversion rates, economic and environmental benefits, beneficial recycling usages and targets, public education and participation, and any other specified goals of such program.

"Producer" means, with respect to new tires marketed to consumers in the Commonwealth separately from any new vehicle or equipment:

1. If the brand holder of the tire is a resident of the United States, the tire manufacturer;

2. If there is no person described in subdivision 1, any person that is not the manufacturer of the tire but that is the owner or licensee of a trademark under which the tire is supplied in the Commonwealth, whether or not such trademark is registered;

3. If there is no person described in subdivision 1 or 2, any person that imports any tire into the Commonwealth for supply to a consumer; or

4. If there is no person described in subdivision 1, 2, or 3, the retailer that supplies the tire to a consumer.

"Recycling" means any process in which discarded tire components and by-products may lose their original identity or form as they are transformed into new, usable, or marketable materials. "Recycling" may include the use of tires or processed materials that are incinerated or used as a fuel or fuel supplement, provided such incineration does not occur in the Commonwealth.

"Retailer" means any person that supplies a tire to a consumer, including any person that supplies a tire through (i) a vehicle service or (ii) an Internet transaction to be delivered to a consumer in the Commonwealth.

"Supply" means the transfer of the title of a tire for consideration, including through means of a sales outlet, catalog, website, or similar electronic means.

"Tire" means a product composed primarily of rubber that is mounted on the wheels of any type of passenger or commercial on-road or off-road motorized vehicle, including passenger vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, mobile homes, trailers, noncommercial aircraft, and earthmoving, road building, mining, logging, agricultural, industrial, and similar vehicles, and that provides mobility. "Tire" does not include any tire from a toy, bicycle, commercial aircraft, or personal mobility device.

"Tire stewardship organization" means the organization created or selected by a producer or producers that designs, submits, and implements a tire stewardship plan pursuant to § 10.1-1425.41.

"Tire stewardship program" or "program" means the statewide program established pursuant to § 10.1-1425.41 and implemented pursuant to an approved tire stewardship plan.

§ 10.1-1425.41. Tire stewardship program.

A. Any producer, or such producer's designee, shall join a tire stewardship organization and such organization shall submit a plan, subject to approval by the Department, to establish a statewide tire stewardship program pursuant to this article. Such tire stewardship program shall, to the extent it is technically feasible and economically practical, (i) establish and manage a statewide collection system utilizing covered entities; (ii) provide statewide equitable access to the collection system to the public, free of charge, for the drop-off of discarded tires; (iii) ensure discarded tires are picked up from the collection system and transported for recycling; (iv) ensure all discarded tires collected in the collection system are resold or recycled; (v) provide suitable storage containers for tires, as necessary, throughout the collection system; (vi) implement public promotion an