Washington State Looking To Department Of Ecology For Scrap Tire Solution
To solve the growing problem of discarded tires the state legislature directed the agency to find out where and how many tire piles were in the state. The directive, ESHB 2085, calls for the DOE to come up with recommendations for cleaning up the tire piles.
The DOE found that there were around five million tires in 54 piles in 19 counties across the state. It is estimated that it will take $7 million and years to clean up the existing tire piles. The Legislature authorized a fee that started July 1 of $1 per new tire sold, which goes toward the cleanup and is accumulating now.
"We found a large volume of cast-away tires and now can map them out," said Cullen Stephenson, who manages Ecology's solid-waste division. "Knowing what's out there is very valuable and with this information in hand, the money collected so far from the tire fee can be made available to us to begin the cleanup work."
The tire fee will be in place for five years, but even after fee-collection ends, remaining funds can be used to eliminate the problem.
"We want to make sure we clean up the piles, but putting prevention measures in place is high on our list, too," Stephenson said.
The full report can be found online at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0507043.html. It contains details about priorities, costs and the need to begin the cleanup process in Washington state as soon as possible.
SOURCE: Washington State Department of Ecology