Ohio cleans up

Recycling Today, August, 2004

Through the combined efforts of state and local agencies, roughly 30 million scrap tires have been cleaned up in Ohio. A $1-per-tire fee on the sale of new tires funds the abatement program.

"The scrap tire program has had many successes due to an effective enforcement program and growth in markets for recycled scrap tire material," Christopher Jones, director of the Ohio EPA, says. "Our goal is to prevent the creation of new large-scale tire dumps and tackle the remaining smaller sites across the state."

State contracts are currently in place to complete cleanup at the last two super-sized tire sites in Ohio. The McMaster's site in Portage County is to be completed in 2005, and the Kirby Tire site in Wyandot County will be completed in June 2006.

The Ohio EPA says that completing these large site cleanups will allow it to focus on smaller sites. Two dozen known sites with 30,000 to 750,000 tires each are slated for the next round of removal.

Cleanup starts with enforcement at the local level. A combination of local enforcement and funding has resulted in the removal of more than 8 million tires from 88 sites throughout Ohio, in addition to state-funded cleanups. A local health department can initiate enforcement action to get a property owner to clean a site. If that effort is not fruitful, Ohio EPA can take legal action to force the site owner to clean up. As a last resort, state scrap tire cleanup funds are used, and the agency pursues cost recovery from the owner.

Ohio has at least 76 tire sites containing up to 30,000 tires each.