|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management announced that it will again offer each of the 67 counties up to $150,000 over three years to clean up tires dumped along roadsides.
Tires can only be disposed of at certain landfills or dropped off at recycling stations around the state. Individuals can also register as receivers and accumulate scrap tires as retail tire dealers or retreaders.
The Scrap Tire Right of Way Program began in 2004 when the Alabama Scrap Tire Environmental Quality Act took effect. The act established a $1 fee on every tire sold in Alabama to develop a fund to clean up discarded tires and promote other methods of managing scrap tires to avoid throwing them into landfills.
Counties that want to participate sign an agreement with ADEM and are later reimbursed for costs associated with collecting and disposing of the scrap tires, including recycling the tires for beneficial use.
The past three-year courses of this program have effectively influenced counties to dispose of these tires in environmentally responsible manners. Old tires can be repurposed as playground surfacing materials or rubber walking tracks and used to create rubber-modified asphalt.
Using funds from the Scrap Tire Right of Way Program, rubber-modified asphalt has been utilized to pave roads and parking areas at Joe Wheeler State Park, Lake Guntersville State Park and DeSoto State Park.
“Old, discarded tires strewn across the landscape are a problem in virtually every county, small or large, rural or urban,” ADEM Director Lance LeFleur said. “These tires are not only eyesores, they are also environmental and health hazards, including breeding grounds for mosquitoes, rodents and other pests. This funding enables counties to address these problems when they might not otherwise could afford the cost in manpower and equipment to do so.”
Since tires are made to trap air, when they are discarded they begin trapping water instead. As a result, these reservoirs become hatching sites for mosquito larvae. When tires are discarded, they provide a protected environment for mosquitoes to thrive and reproduce, creating a public health concern.
