Solution Sought to Roll Back Waste of Old Tires

Each year, county landfills receive about 2 million old, unusable car and truck tires--nearly one for every man, woman and child in the county.

Not only are they a bother for landfill operators, they fill dumps at a rate of 45 tons per day.

“They are a real nuisance, a pain in the neck,” said Frank R. Bowerman, director and chief engineer of the county’s waste management program. “They take on a life of their own. You bury them, and the next thing you know they pop up through the ground and are rolling away. You have to go get them and bring them back.

“I think there should be a better use for them, rather than just filling up our landfills.”

He said many of the tires are being cut up in strips six inches wide and about a foot long so they can be more easily buried.

County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said Thursday that he intends to ask the General Services and the Environmental Management agencies to study the used-tire issue and report back with possible alternative methods of disposal.

The report, Vasquez said, should include such alternatives as shipping the tires to waste-to-energy plants, such as the one in Modesto, or shredding the tires and mixing them with asphalt for building roads.

It could be expensive to ship the tires to out-of-county energy plants, but Vasquez said it should be considered because it may save money in the long run by extending the life of the county’s dwindling landfills.

Bowerman said one small business operator has expressed interest in taking a limited number of old tires and shipping them to Mexico, where they are commonly used as fences and road markers, sunk halfway into the ground with their tops painted white.

Vasquez’s study request will be made to the Board of Supervisors at a meeting Tuesday. He will ask county attorneys to draft a law that would bar the dumping of tires along roads and in remote areas.

“It is imperative that we explore alternatives to keep tires out of landfills,” Vasquez said. “In our efforts, sufficient attention must be directed toward recycling these bulky nuisance items.”

The county agencies will have 60 days to report back to the board with a list of tire disposal alternatives.