Countywide : Tires, Diapers Seen as Waste Problems

As the Board of Supervisors looked at alternative ways of getting rid of millions of old car tires, one supervisor, Roger R. Stanton, warned Tuesday of another product that might pose future problems for the county’s landfills--disposable diapers.

“I just want to warn staff I will be asking for an additional study about a problem regarding a product that we all don’t use, at least I hope not, and that’s disposable diapers,” Stanton said.

“And I understand from studies that have been made available to my staff . . . (disposable diapers) make up 2% of the solid waste that we have to deal with in this county.”

Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley pointed out that 42,000 children were born during the county’s Centennial Year, implying that the new babies accounted for a lot of disposable diapers.

After the discussion, the board voted unanimously to study waste-to-energy options for disposing of the 2 million tires each year taken to county landfills. Tires, which account for one-half of 1% of the area’s solid waste, have long been a nuisance at the landfills, and because of their bulkiness they often pop to the surface after being buried.

The proposal by Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez also directed county staff to:

* Work with other Southern California counties to develop a regional approach for disposing of unusable tires.

* Solicit proposals to recycle old tires into useful raw materials.

* Continue to explore implementation of a county-operated tire-shredding program.

County officials are also looking into waste-to-energy disposal of the tires through pyrolysis (chemical decomposition using heat) and incineration.

Supervisors have also proposed a new ordinance that would make it illegal to dispose of tires anywhere but at designated dump sites.