EGLE creates tire scrap program to properly get rid of, repurpose, old tires

By Peter Maxwell

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    DETROIT (WXYZ) — In the state of Michigan, it is illegal to dump full-sized tires into landfills. It is also illegal to well dump them on a plot of land and in alleyways. Nonetheless, people do it anyway. But now, EGLE has a tire scrap program that is putting those tires to better use.

“Basically a lot of people come down here and dump stuff. I mean everybody does it.”

It doesn’t take long to find a whole lot of used and abandoned tires on the west side of Detroit. Ironically, my photographer and I were driving down Tireman Street and came across an abandoned auto repair shop where abandoned tires were not that hard to find.

Just a few blocks down, we found more tires that were covered in car parts. But, dumping tires is illegal for many reasons all pertaining to health and safety.

“There could be a lot of rodents in scrap tire piles. There could be a huge potential for mosquito hatching and also if they catch on fire, they burn hot, they burn fast and there’s a lot of smoke,” Kirsten Clemens the Scrap Tire Coordinator at EGLE said.

And that smoke can be toxic.

On the east side of Detroit, there are lots of abandoned tires as well. Michelle Chapman, a resident of the east side says she says she sees a lot of yard waste, and trash being dumped, and occasionally some tires too.

“It’s discouraging. To go past all of that. And just drive up some of the streets and you’ll see,” she said.

Jeul Lewis lives on the west side of Detroit and also says the tire dumping is a problem.

“A lot of people want to maintain their stuff or you can get a tire collection service or something where they just come around and get them. I am pretty sure they do something with them,” she said.

At EGLE, they do. The tires can be used to make new moldings for cars, to create artificial turf fields, to make bases for construction barrels and they can also be used on our roadways.

“We are working a lot right now to get scrap tire rubber into road projects, into the asphalt, and different asphalt treatments from pores pavement to modified chip seal and actual paving projects,” Clemens said.

If you do see abandon tires on plots of land, you can give the city of Detroit or EGLE a call. They’ll come and pick them up and put them to better use.

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