P.R. Laws tit. 12, § 8091
The following words or terms shall have the meaning stated below whenever they are used or referred to in this chapter, except when the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(a) Scrap tire warehouseperson.— A person who collects and stores scrap tires, including tire sellers that, in turn, keep and store scrap tires within their facilities.
(b) Authority.— Means the Solid Waste Authority created under §§ 1301—1319 of this title.
(c) Bank.— Means the Government Development Bank created under §§ 551 et seq. of Title 7.
(d) Fee.— Means the Scrap Tire Management and Disposal Fee imposed on all tires, whether they are manufactured in Puerto Rico or imported new or used.
(e) Crumb rubber.— It is the tire without processed metal measuring a quarter of an inch (1/4”) or less. Usable as intermediate product or raw material for asphalt, rubber based end products, and children’s playground surface, among other purposes.
(f) Tire chips.— It is processed tire pieces measuring more than a quarter of an inch (1/4”), but less than three inches (3”). It may be used as tire-derived fuel, concrete additive in nonstructural uses, and raw material for crumb rubber, among others. This is not an end-use product, but rather an intermediate product or raw material.
(g) Tire-derived fuel.— Any whole tires or tire chips which are used due to their heat generating value in industrial combustion processes. The use thereof as fuel is not deemed to be recycling.
(h) DACO (Spanish acronym).— Means the Department of Consumer’s Affairs created under §§ 341 et seq. of Title 3.
(i) Tire exporter.— Any person who receives, collects, and/or handles scrap tires to be recycled or disposed of in facilities outside of Puerto Rico. Any person who exports scrap tires in this manner shall be considered a scrap tire exporter, and any person who exports processed or crumb tires shall be considered a processed scrap tire exporter.
(j) Invoice.— Is the document adopted or approved by the Board which shall be used to process payments for the work carried out by the processor, exporter, recycler, and end-use facility. Such document shall contain, among other things, the amount of scrap tires in pounds, whether whole or processed, as well as their origin.
(k) Fund.— Is the Proper Scrap Tire Management Fund which is nourished from the money collected from the disposal fee imposed on tires, whether these tires are imported or manufactured in Puerto Rico.
(l) Government of Puerto Rico.— Means the Government of Puerto Rico and the departments, agencies, instrumentalities, public corporations, and municipal governments thereof.
(m) Treasury.— Means the Department of the Treasury, one of the executive departments created under Section 6 in Article IV of the Constitution of Puerto Rico.
(n) Tire importer.— Any person who receives or imports new or used tires to Puerto Rico for the distribution, sale, use, or final disposal thereof. It includes any person who imports tires as part of a vehicle or motor vehicle.
(o) Scrap tire processing facility or Scrap tire processor.— The person authorized by the Board to carry out the partial, physical, or chemical transformation process of scrap tire matter through crushing, crumbling, or other means other than recycling.
(p) Scrap tire recycling facility or Scrap tire recycler.— The person authorized by the Board to intervene in the transformation process of scrap tire matter to produce new products. It shall not include power recovery facilities.
(q) End-use facility.— A facility that, according to the activity conducted, may certify the end-use of tires, whether to be used as an energy source or for non-structural uses.
(r) Certified facility.— A facility that shall use the received rubber as raw material or fuel, as certified by the exporter with attesting evidence.
(s) Advisory Board.— Refers to the Fee and Rate Structure Advisory Board to which this chapter delegates the power to provide advice on the revision of fees and rate structures.
(t) Board.— Refers to the Environmental Quality Board, a government entity created by virtue of §§ 8001 et seq. of this title.
(u) Tire importer license.— Is the authorization issued by the Board to every importer of new or used tires, which shall credit him/her as a bona fide entity to import tires and do business in Puerto Rico.
(v) Manufacturer license.— The authorization issued by the Board to every tire manufacturer in Puerto Rico, which shall credit him/her as a bona fide entity to manufacture tires and do business in Puerto Rico.
(w) Manifest.— The document adopted by the Board and produced by the scrap tire warehouseperson that shall state the origin, route, and final destination of the tires, as well as the number of scrap tires handled and transported to a processing, recycling, exporting, and/or final disposal facility, where the weight equivalence (pounds) of the scrap tires received is also added.
(x) Tire manufacturer.— Is a person within the jurisdiction of the Government of Puerto Rico who is engaged in tire manufacturing.
(y) Tire.— Any tire or rubber cushion, whether from natural or synthetic rubber, which is inflatable with air or other substance, thus allowing a vehicle or motor vehicle to move. It includes solid and rimless tires that are usually manufactured with a natural or synthetic rubber base and other combination of materials.
(z) Scrap tire.— A tire which has lost its worth or use for its originally intended purpose, whether due to use, damage, or defect.
(aa) Public work.— Any construction, reconstruction, alteration, extension, or improvement work carried out by means of administration, private contract, or awarded to a subcontractor by the Government of Puerto Rico.
(bb) OGPe.— Means the Permit Management Office, a government entity created under §§ 9011 et seq. of Title 23.
(cc) Person.— Any natural or juridical person, whether public or private, and any group thereof.
(dd) Permit.— The approval issued by the Board, whether to operate as a scrap tire hauler, processor, recycler, exporter, or as an end-use service facility.
(ee) Retreading.— The process whereby a worn out tire is fit with a new tread, thus outfitting it for use. This process shall not be deemed to be recycling.
(ff) Scrap tire hauler.— Any person authorized by the Board to receive, pick up, and transport whole scrap tires to processing, recycling, export, or end-use facilities.
(gg) Nonstructural use.— The use of scrap tires or tire chips or crumb rubber as aggregate in engineering works such as: sidewalks, curbs, cemetery niches and graves, retaining and architectural walls, flower-boxes, sound-control and impact barriers, ground erosion control, boundary fences, construction of dikes for lagoons, among others, as accepted by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). For said uses, the tire chips may be substituted with construction aggregates from the earth cortex.
(hh) Vehicle.— Any device in which or whereby any property is, or may be transported or carried on public thoroughfares, except for those used exclusively on railroad tracks.
(ii) Motor vehicle.— Any self-propelled vehicle including, but not limited to, the following vehicles that use tires:
(1) Tractors.
(2) Steamrollers.
(3) Backhoes.
(4) Specialized road-construction equipment.
(5) Deep-wells drilling equipment.
(6) Vehicles that move on rails, by sea, or air.
(jj) Tire salesperson.— The person engaged in the sale of new or used tires.
History —July 22, 2009, No. 41, § 2, eff. Oct. 30, 2011; July 12, 2011, No. 135, § 1; Mar. 4, 2016, No. 16, § 1.