Heather Pellrin, Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Branch, 302-739-9403;
Melanie Rapp, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902.

DNREC’s fifth Scrap Tire Drop-off Day nets 31.5 tons of scrap tires, bringing number of tires recycled to nearly 10,000 in two years

HARRINGTON (Oct. 27, 2010) – Another DNREC-sponsored Scrap Tire Drop-off Day held earlier this month at the Delaware State Fairgrounds netted 31.5 tons of scrap tires – or more than 2,500 old passenger vehicle tires that could have ended up in an unsightly, mosquito-infested pile or left to take up valuable landfill space.

The event also brought the number of old tires collected throughout the state to nearly 10,000 since DNREC’s Scrap Tire Management Program staged the first drop-off day two years ago.

The latest event was the fifth held since DNREC began offering Delaware residents the opportunity to recycle scrap tires free of charge and to help reduce the environmental and health hazards of scrap tires in the state’s communities. Delaware residents have responded to the scrap tire recycling program with strong participation at drop-off events held in each of three counties.

Delaware’s Scrap Tire Management Program was created to eliminate large, unsightly scrap tire piles that can contribute to dangerous fires that produce toxic smoke and oily liquid runoff from melted tires that can pollute groundwater. In addition, tire piles provide ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can carry the West Nile virus.

The Delaware Scrap Tire Management Program is funded by a state fee of $2 per tire on the sale of new tires. Enacted Jan. 1, 2007, the fee is diverted to the Scrap Tire Management Fund, a matching fund and program created to clean up existing scrap tire piles statewide.

For more information on the program and future scrap tire drop-off events, visit DNREC’s website at www.dnrec.delaware.gov/whs/awm/Info/Pages/ScrapTire.aspx, or contact the Scrap Tire Management Program at 302-739-9403.

Vol. 40, No. 366