Recycling: waste tires: public works projects.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to mandate the use of crumb rubber at a specified percentage, per metric ton, of the total amount of asphalt paving materials used for state highway construction or repair projects that use asphalt as a construction material. Existing law specifies a schedule that requires an increasing amount of asphalt paving materials containing crumb rubber to be used per metric ton of the total amount of asphalt paving materials. Existing law requires that, until January 1, 2015, not less than 50% of the asphalt pavement used to comply with those crumb rubber content requirements be rubberized asphalt concrete and authorizes the department, after that date, to use any material meeting the definition of asphalt containing crumb rubber to comply with those requirements. This bill would extend to January 1, 2020, the period during which not less than 50% of the asphalt pavement is required to be rubberized asphalt concrete to comply with the crumb rubber content requirements, and would postpone until January 1, 2020, the authorization for the department to use any material meeting the definition of asphalt containing crumb rubber to comply with those requirements. (2) The existing California Tire Recycling Act requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to administer a tire recycling program, and imposes a California tire fee on a new tire purchased in the state. The revenue generated from the fee is deposited in the California Tire Recycling Management Fund for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of programs related to waste tires, including grants to local government agencies for public works projects that use waste tires. The bill would additionally authorize the department, when awarding grants pursuant to the tire recycling program, to award grants for public works projects to create parklets, greenways, or both, that use tire-derived products and would require the department, if it awards those grants, to give priority for funding to those projects in disadvantaged communities, as defined.