(415 ILCS 5/53) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 1053)

Sec. 53. (a) The General Assembly finds:

(1) that used and waste tires constitute a growing solid waste problem of considerable magnitude that is exacerbated by the fact that tires do not readily degrade or decompose;

(2) that the accumulation of used and waste tires constitutes a fire hazard and a threat to air and water quality;

(3) that unmanaged used and waste tire sites encourage open dumping of other types of waste;

(4) that used and waste tire accumulations pose a threat to the public health, safety and welfare by providing habitat for a number of disease-spreading mosquitoes and other nuisance organisms, and that the transport of used tires has introduced such mosquitoes into the State and dispersed them;

(5) that State agencies need the ability to remove, or cause the removal of, used and waste tire accumulations as necessary to abate or correct hazards to public health and to protect the environment; and

(6) that used and waste tires may also afford a significant economic opportunity for recycling into new and useful products or as a source of fuel.

(b) It is the purpose of this Act:

(1) to ensure that used and waste tires are collected and are put to beneficial use or properly disposed of;

(2) to provide for the abatement of used and waste tire dumps and associated threats to the public health and welfare;

(3) to encourage the development of used and waste tire processing facilities and technologies, including energy recovery; and

(4) to provide for research on disease vectors associated with used and waste tires, and the diseases they spread.

It shall be the policy of the State of Illinois to provide for the recovery, recycling and reuse of materials from scrap vehicle tires. The following hierarchy shall be in effect for tires generated for waste management in this State:

(1) Reuse of tire casings for remanufacture or retreading.

(2) Processing of tires into marketable products, such as stamped parts from portions of tire casings.

(3) Total destruction of tires into a uniform product that is marketable as a fuel or recycled material feedstock, including such products as tire-derived fuel, or recovered rubber for recycling into rubber or other products or as an asphalt additive.

(4) Total destruction of tires through primary shredding to produce a nonuniform product for use as in road beds or other construction applications, or at a landfill or similar site for erosion control or cover.

(5) Total destruction of tires to a nonuniform product consistency for direct landfill disposal.

(Source: P.A. 86-452; 87-727.)