Before starting this week’s column I would like to correct information I included in “Good And Used” a couple weeks ago. The Collection Basket accepts donations every Monday and Tuesday, not on Thursdays as I had stated.
Dozens of cars, pickups and SUVs pull into the Keep Alliance Beautiful lot every week to deposit sorted recyclables into our trailers. Often, two or three people arrive at the same time with completely different loads. A common factor is nearly everyone who uses the site or stops by the adjacent recycling center drives. Even for environmentally-minded vehicle owners, how many think about recycling tires?
KAB and the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) are working with the city of Alliance to host a tire amnesty event funded through a Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy grant. From April 30 – May 5 (except May 2) Box Butte and Sheridan County residents will be able to bring their used tires to the Alliance Municipal Landfill, at 1441 Kansas Street, free of charge. Hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday – Friday and 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Saturday. Up to 500 tons of tires will be accepted overall.
Alliance has received funding for previous collections on several occasions over the past couple decades. Drivers who save a set or maybe a semi load can bet on a free disposal opportunity if they are patient. City Administrative Secretary Kaytlin Norris listed previous amnesty years and tons of tires collected: 2014-425 tons, 2010-397 tons, 2006-205 tons, 2005-498 tons, 2000-343 tons and 1999-276 tons.
While it is free to the public at this year’s event, tires will not be accepted from people/businesses who charge fees to collect tires. Also, tires must be removed from the rims.
Outside these amnesty events, the landfill does accept tires for a fee. However, ammassing hundreds of tons of the rubber and steel rings at a time aids in finding recycling outlets. Landfill Supervisor Clint Fankhauser said the City awarded the bid for the 2021 event to a Kansas company that expects to haul up to 43 truckloads out of here.
Keep Alliance Beautiful is always looking at the potential to recycle additional materials though tires are not likely to make the list. We do help close the loop by selling mulch made from recycled tire rubber. A brochure provided by Norris lists likely uses for tires that will come from the upcoming collection: Resource Management CO., Inc. recycles any tires that are able to be utilized for available markets including feed bunks, sidewall rings for silage cover weights, and alternate daily cover for landfills. Tires that cannot be recycled are processed and disposed of at a permitted site in Julesburg, Colo.
Covering two counties, I am confident area residents will hit the 500-ton threshold. Chances are if that nearly bald set of P235/75R15s has not made it onto a backup set of rims in 12 years then this is an opportune time to clear some garage space. Farmers and ranchers may also want to save a small fortune in fees by hauling in growing piles of tractor and truck tires.
A few years ago, the tires I had been too cheap to dispose of became part of a tower I built as a birthday present for my daughter. Whether reused in a DIY project or recycled for free this month at our landfill, the potential destination for used tires is encouraging locally and nationwide. An article by Rick LeBlanc for “the balancesmb” cites a stockpile of scrap tires in the U.S. of more than a billion in 1991 that shrunk to 60 million by 2017.