The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) today announced a grant of $50,000 for the company Friendly Environment from the state’s Tire Environmental Act Program. Friendly Environment, a tire processing and sustainable erosion and sediment control company, will provide matching funds of $50,000 to purchase equipment to assist with its scrap tire processing operations. The equipment costs $100,000 and will allow the company to improve the efficiency of its shredding operations and increase production. “The Tire Environmental Act Program provides ways to retrieve old tires and repurpose them into community assets,” said TDEC Deputy Commissioner Greg Young. “These grants help make that happen, and we look forward to the results that come from this process.” Friendly Environment’s scrap tire processing operations began in 2020 when it first received a tire grant. Since its beginning, it has shredded over 600,000 scrap tires, using the rubber chips to create its erosion control products. The purpose of the Tire Environmental Act Program is to select and fund projects that best result in beneficial uses for waste tires. Projects must qualify for one of three categories: tire processing/recycling, tire-derived material use, or research and development. The program provides grant funding to eligible entities, including local governments, non-profit organizations, higher education institutions, K-12 schools, and for-profit businesses. Tennessee established the Tire Environmental Fund in 2015. Upon the first retail sale of a new motor vehicle to be titled and registered in Tennessee, a flat fee based on the number of a vehicle’s wheels is assessed. The fee goes into the fund, which is used for projects creating or supporting beneficial end uses for waste tires. Since 2015, grantees have been awarded almost $9.2 million, and approximately 7.6 million tires or nearly 82,000 tons of scrap tires have been diverted from landfills. The tires are repurposed for use in rubberized asphalt, tire-derived aggregate, tire-derived fuel, granulated rubber porous flexible pavement, and other beneficial end uses that result in tires being diverted from landfill for a higher and better use.
Bowman Broadcasting
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