NEWS FROM THE DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

Nov. 10, 2009
Vol. 39, No. 441

Media contact: Laurene Eheman, Solid and Hazardous Waste Section, Division of Air and Waste Management, 302-739-9403; or Melanie Rapp, Public Affairs, 302-739-9902. PHOTOS available by contacting Public Affairs.

Recycling event in Wilmington nets
8.5 tons of scrap tires; "drop-off days"
have now recycled nearly 5,000 tires

WILMINGTON, Del. – Last Saturday’s Scrap Tire Drop-off event at Frawley Stadium netted 8.5 tons of scrap tires – more than 650 old passenger vehicle tires that could have ended up in an unsightly, scrap tire pile or left to decompose in a Delaware landfill. The event, the third held in the past year, provided Delaware residents with the opportunity to recycle scrap tires free of charge and help reduce the environmental and health hazards of scrap tires in our communities.

“Our three drop-off events have collected nearly 60 tons or more than 4,800 scrap tires,” said administrative manager Laurene Eheman of DNREC’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Branch. “Delaware residents from each county have responded to our recycling program. With the tremendous response we’ve had over the past year, a fourth Scrap Tire Drop-off is planned for next spring in the Seaford-Georgetown area.”

The first Scrap Tire Drop-off day was held Oct. 2008 near Harbeson in Sussex County and netted more than 30 tons of discarded tires. At last April’s event, almost 20 tons of tires were collected at the Delaware State fairgrounds in Harrington.

Delaware’s Scrap Tire Cleanup and Control Program was created to eliminate large, unsightly scrap tire piles that can spawn 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 Wilmington Scrap Tire Drop-Off Day was held in conjunction with the Delaware Solid Waste Authority’s Household Hazardous Waste and Electronic Goods Collection Day and the Clean Wilmington Committee’s Shredding Event. 

The Delaware Scrap Tire Cleanup and Control 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, www.dnrec.delaware.gov/whs/awm/Info/Pages/ScrapTire.aspx, or contact the Scrap Tire Control and Cleanup Program at 302-739-9403.