To date, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) has provided 289 grants for schools, municipalities and nonprofit day-care centers to purchase recycled tire material for surfaces on their playgrounds, running tracks, and walking trails, said MDNR Environmental Specialist Richard Allen, adding that almost a million tires were recycled to provide the rubber material for the grants.
In 1990, the Missouri General Assembly created a scrap-tire fee. The fee was implemented because so many illegal piles of scrap tires were scattered through Missouri. The tires were not only marring the landscape, they were also creating health hazards, and the fee allowed officials to manage their proper disposal, Missouri state Sen. Bill Stouffer said.
Since then, when customers buy new tires, they pay a 50-cent fee for each tire, which goes toward recycling the old tires to make them useful again, Stouffer said, adding that the fee is distributed as follows: 65 percent for tire site cleanups, 25 percent for administration, 5 percent to educational programs on solid-waste management, and 5 percent for grants.
Allen said that since the fee was implemented, more than 15 million tires have been removed from Missouri's landscape.
Scrap tire hauler Chris Smith of ABC Tire in Kansas City said he hauls away 3.5 million tires each year throughout the Midwest. However, he said, many tires are unaccounted for.
"So many inner-city shops and rural shops are not disposing of tires properly, and they end up in ditches and landfills," he said. "We need more regulation and record checks to make sure businesses are complying with the rules because it is a great reusable resource."
In Odessa, one business turns old tires into fuel; another in Macon recycles tires for use in playground surfaces. Recently, 30,000 tires were hauled in from one site near Higginsville to go to the University of Missouri Power plant in Columbia for fuel, Stouffer said.
Allen said 65 percent of the 5 million tires legally generated every year and tires that are taken out of illegal dumps are used to make tire-derived fuel in Missouri, which replaces up to 5 percent of the coal that utility boilers (mainly power plants) and concrete kilns would normally use for fuel, Allen said.
Keeping the state free of illegal tire dumps is also important for the environment and to individual health, Stouffer said. Old tires full of rainwater are breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus, he said. "If four or five old tires sitting in a field, filling with water, and gathering mosquitoes are bad, then imagine what a hazard an illegal dump with thousands of tires is doing," he said.
The DNR estimates that more than 300,000 scrap tires are still in illegal dumps. They also estimate there could be another 500,000 tires that have yet to be discovered.
"The best way to ensure that the tires will be recycled is to make sure they are not going to a hauler or processer who (dumps them in an illegal landfill)," Allen said. "The DNR requires that all tires be taken to a legal destination."
The scrap tire fee will expire in 2010, but Allen said he is optimistic that it will be extended during 2009 legislative session. He added that individuals can help with the process by contacting legislatures and urging them to support the fee extension.
If you know about a tire landfill, or have questions, you can reach the Department of Natural Resources Solid Waste Management Program at 573-751-5401.
DNR regional offices may also be contacted: Kansas City Regional Office at 816-622-7000, Northeast Regional Office at 600-385-2129, St. Louis Regional Office at 314-416-2960, Southwest Regional Office at 573-840-9750, and Southwest Regional Office at 417-891-4300.
