Abstract
Professor Robert W. Wassmer conducted the study as a consultant to the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). Wassmer and his study team used a rational analysis method to increase the logical clarity of the CIWMB's decision on the use of subsidies to increase the amount of waste tires diverted from California landfills. The CIWMB used the nearly 30 million dollers this generated annually to fund a combination of research, market development incentives, public information campaigns, and regulatory activities to try to manage the state's waste tires. In Assembly Bill (AB) 117, the California Legislature required that the CIWMB produce an evaluation of its previous handling of scrap tires. To stakeholders in Southern California's crumb rubber industry, this chain of recent events justified the validity of their request that the CIWMB offer a subsidy similar to the Canadian government. The CIWMB was a state agency created in 1989 under the umbrella organization of the California Environmental Protection Agency.