NEWS FROM THE DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL
April 29, 2010
Vol. 40, No. 134
Contact: Laurene Eheman, Solid and Hazardous Waste Section, Division of Air and Waste Management, 302-739-9403; or Melanie Rapp or Michael Globetti, Public Affairs, 302-739-9902. PHOTOS available by contacting Public Affairs.
Scrap Tire Drop-off Day in Seaford nets 22 tons of scrap tires;
State’s fourth event brings total of tires recycled to 6,300
SEAFORD – Last Saturday’s Scrap Tire Drop-off event at the Seaford Boat Ramp parking lot netted 22 tons of scrap tires – more than 1,700 old passenger vehicle tires that could have ended up in an unsightly, mosquito-infested pile or left to decompose for many years in a Delaware landfill. The event, the fourth held over the last two years, 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 four drop-off events have collected nearly 80 tons or 6,300 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 to each event over the past two years, a fifth Scrap Tire Drop-off is planned for the fall in central Delaware.”
The first Scrap Tire Drop-off day was held October 2008 near Harbeson in Sussex County and netted more than 20 tons of discarded tires. At the April 2009 event almost 30 tons of tires were collected at the Delaware State fairgrounds in Harrington. Eight tons were collected at the third event in November 2009 at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington.
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 City of Seaford partnered with DNREC to host this event by allowing the use of a section of the parking lot at the Boat Ramp facility.
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 at www.dnrec.delaware.gov/whs/awm/Info/Pages/ScrapTire.aspx, or contact the Scrap Tire Control and Cleanup Program at 302-739-9403.
