Here is what the law says, where the program stands today, and what you should be doing in your bay this week.
The authority is P.L. 2025, c. 389 — Assembly Bill 5851, signed into law on January 20, 2026. It directs DEP to build two things New Jersey has never had as a standalone system:
The statute gave DEP 180 days from enactment to establish the licensing requirement and a scrap tire management system with manifesting and tracking. That clock ran out in mid-July. DEP's July 16 notice is the first public step in that build-out.
The definition is broader than most shop owners assume. Under the law, a scrap tire is either:
Read the second prong again. That six-month clock means a takeoff sitting on a rack "just in case" can become a scrap tire on the calendar alone, whether or not it still has tread. If you keep customer takeoffs, seasonal swaps, or trade-in sets on hand, you are holding scrap tires under this definition sooner than you'd think.
DEP is not yet issuing hauler licenses. The Department describes the current period as phased implementation, and the requirement at this stage is registration, not licensing.
At this stage, any entity that collects, picks up, or transports scrap tires must complete DEP's initial registration form. DEP is explicit about the limits of that filing:
DEP's stated purpose for the interim step is to identify who is actively hauling, understand current practice, and build the permanent licensing and tracking systems the statute requires.
This is the part that lands on you, not on your hauler.
Retailers must ensure that any scrap tire hauler they use has completed the required registration form and received confirmation from DEP.
Three concrete actions:
1. Ask your hauler for their registration confirmation. DEP states the hauler should be able to show it to you, electronic or printed. Not a verbal assurance — the confirmation.
2. Put a copy in your file. DEP has not published a retailer recordkeeping mandate at this stage. Keep the confirmation anyway. When the permanent tracking and manifest system comes online, the shops that already have a paper trail will have a very short transition; the shops that don't will be reconstructing a year of pickups from memory.
3. Stop tendering tires to an unregistered hauler. DEP's language is direct: retailers should not send scrap tires with a hauler who has not registered. If your hauler can't produce confirmation, DEP directs the hauler to contact the Department immediately at scraptire@dep.nj.gov for compliance assistance. That is the hauler's call to make — but the decision to load the trailer is yours.
Once DEP completes the next stages of implementation, retailers will be required to:
The statute fills in what those licensed haulers will be carrying. Expect your hauler's cost structure to move, because the law requires each licensed hauler to:
Hauler licenses will run for terms of up to three years, with application fees and possible annual fees. The statute also directs DEP to administer the program as a baseline of accountability and transparency — not as a barrier to entry — and specifically instructs the Department to size insurance and bonding requirements so they don't impose an undue burden on small or independent haulers. Whether that survives contact with the rulemaking is worth watching.
This is where shops need to count.
The law requires a permit to maintain a scrap tire storage, collection, or disposal site. But it carves out several exemptions from that permit requirement, and most repair facilities land inside them:
There is also a separate allowance: a person may store up to 1,000 scrap tires without a site permit if all tires are kept in secured, enclosed storage containers designed to prevent water accumulation and unauthorized access.
Two practical takeaways. First, 500 is the number to know for an ordinary shop or tire store — and the six-month definition above means your count may be higher than what you'd call "scrap." Second, the 1,000-tire allowance is conditional on the container, not the intention. An open pile behind the building doesn't qualify no matter how neatly it's stacked.
Facilities already holding a valid DEP solid waste or recycling permit that expressly authorizes receiving, storing, transferring, processing, or disposing of scrap tires won't need a separate site approval for those same activities.
The statute defines "scrap tire collection" as the pick-up and transportation of scrap tires from their source to a licensed facility or other destination, and prohibits engaging in scrap tire collection without a license. DEP's notice says any entity that collects, picks up, or transports scrap tires must register.
If you run your own tires to a recycler in your own truck, that language points at you. The Department has not published guidance on self-hauling generators, and we're not going to guess at it. If you self-haul, call DEP at (609) 633-1418 or email scraptire@dep.nj.gov and get an answer in writing before your next run.
The enforcement provisions are not nominal. Civil administrative penalties run up to $7,500 for a first offense, $10,000 for a second, and $25,000 for a third and each subsequent offense — with each day a violation continues counting as a separate offense. Civil penalties of up to $7,500 per day are available by court action, and violating an order or failing to pay an assessment exposes a person to penalties up to $50,000 per day.
DEP will post program requirements, guidance documents, forms, and FAQs on the Scrap Tire Management Program website: https://dep.nj.gov/dshw/scrap-tire-management/. Questions go to scraptire@dep.nj.gov or (609) 633-1418.
This article is provided for general information and compliance planning. It is not legal advice. Program requirements are in active development; confirm current obligations directly with NJDEP before relying on any summary, including this one.