What Can Be Done to Limit Tire Dumping
Scrap Tires:
You have seen them dumped along side roads, in vacant lots, in alleys and perhaps in your favorite trout stream. Sometimes it's one or two, sometimes ten or twelve, and sometimes twenty or more. It's called "midnight dumping" or "fly dumping" or "wildcat dumping." And when one or two start a pile, more will be dumped soon. This nuisance dumping can be found in big cities, small towns and the countryside. Cleaning up these nuisance piles is time consuming and expensive; moreover, just as one gets cleaned up, it seems another gets started someplace else.
Tires aren't the only scrap material that gets illegally dumped, but they seem to be the poster child for bad littering behavior. Scrap tires get dumped for several reasons: poor enforcement of anti-littering and anti-dumping laws; lack of easily available alternatives; and tire jockeys trying to make a few more bucks by illegally dumping tires, rather than paying tip fees. Unlicensed tire jockeys figure they can get away with illegal dumping because no one is enforcing the law. In many cases, it is the tire consumer illegally dumping tires. Around 15 percent of scrap tires are taken back by, or returned to customers. Many never make it back home with the consumer!
Environmental Concerns:
Tire piles, legal or illegal, pose at least two health threats: pests and fire. Many disease carrying pests flourish in tire piles. Chief culprit are many kinds of mosquitoes that prefer to breed in the quiet, stagnant water that collects inside tires. In addition to being the normal pests that all mosquitoes are, several of these varieties can carry deadly diseases, including encephalitis and dengue fever. Control and eradication programs, short of removing the pile, are difficult.
Fire presents a second threat. Scrap tire fires are difficult to extinguish, and can burn for considerable periods, releasing heavy black smoke and possibly contaminating the soil with an oily residue. This can cause considerable discomfort and damage to the environment. Tire stock pile fires start either as a result of arson or accident; tire stock piles do not spontaneously combust.
Regulating Scrap Tires:
No federal laws or regulations specifically govern scrap tires. States however have been very active, with 48 states having some law or regulations specifically dealing with scrap tires. While each state has its own program, some common features include licensing or registration requirements for scrap tire haulers, processors and some end users; manifests for scrap tire shipments; limitations on who may handle scrap tires; financial assurance requirements for scrap tire handlers; and market development activities.
Anti-Dumping Programs:
Experience from across the U.S. provide several examples of programs that can reduce illegal dumping and help clean up existing dumps. Examples include:
Tire Amnesty Days:
Similar to other amnesty days. On a widely publicized day, any local citizen can bring a limited number of tires to a drop-off site free of charge. Often local tire dealers and tire haulers participate to insure as many tires as possible are collected from home basements and garages. State scrap tire programs may provide financial help.
Public Education:
Helps the general public understand the environmental threat and the tax burden that illegal dumping causes.
Drop-off sites:
Some jurisdictions allow local citizens to drop-off limited numbers of tires at recycling drop-off centers. The reasoning is that it is less expensive to have tires dropped off at a central site, even if it costs money to have them hauled away, than it is to pay city workers to clean them up from alleys or public lands.
Enforcement:
Sound anti-litter laws and anti-tire dumping laws should be coupled with effective enforcement.
Clean-up Programs:
Not every community has the resources to clean up scrap tire dumps. Creating a coalition of interested and effected parties can be helpful.
Multi-agency Cooperation:
Use department of corrections or community service time offenders to assist in clean-up programs. Because of the mosquito threat, health departments or mosquito control offices may have an interest in helping (and funding). State scrap tire programs may have money to assist in clean-up programs.
Build a Community Team:
Property owners, residents, community groups, local business and government and the media can all work together to publicize efforts to eliminate illegal dumping and tire dumps. Community groups can work to clean up neighborhoods as well as report illegal tire dumpers.
Prosecute and Publicize:
When someone is apprehended for dumping tires, publicize the event. And prosecute. Let the community know that dumpers will be caught and there will be penalties to pay.
For More Information consult the following sources:
Illegal Dumping Prevention Guidebook; US Environmental Protection Agency, Region V, EPA 905-B-97-001: March 1998. Call 312-886-2395
A Guidebook for Community Convenience Centers: One Solution to Illegal Roadside Dumping: Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, Oklahoma State University, MP-140, March 1997
Cleaning Up Your Neighborhood and Keeping It Clean: Eliminating Dumps and Litter, Pennsylvania CleanWays; RD #11, Box 631, Greensburg, PA, 15601. 412-925-9653
© 2012 Rubber Manufacturers Association