New York State seeks to eliminate tire piles

Recycling Today, Oct, 2004

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is preparing a plan designed to abate all noncompliant tire stockpiles in the state by the end of 2010.

In developing the plan, DEC representatives visited 162 locations in the state identified as potential nuisance tire stockpiles, resulting in the documentation of 95 noncompliant scrap tire stockpiles.

The office estimates that around 29 million scrap tires are currently stored in these 95 sites. Of those sites, five of the largest offenders had a total of nearly 25 million tires, or roughly 85 percent of the tires.

The five companies are the Fortino site, West Monroe; Mohawk Tire Recycling, Waterford; Homburg Tire, Sinclairville; New York Tire/Izzo Property, Smithtown; and Cycletech, Hudson.

In the event the DEC must assume abatement responsibility, DEC will seek beneficial uses for the tires. At the present time, DEC is developing plans to use scrap tires in road construction activities in cooperation with the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Thruway Authority to beneficially use the bulk of the scrap tires.