Indiana Agency Reports Widespread Illegal Scrap Tire Storage in State

State Department of Environmental Management struggles to deal with problem tire piles.

 

An evaluation by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management of the state's 30 waste tire processors detected illegal storage of large volumes of waste tires and shredded tires.

 

Muncie-based CR3 of Indiana, which was destroyed by a tire fire a year ago today, was one of six Indiana tire recyclers accused of illegally storing waste tires.

 

The others are Stewart Recycling of Knox County, Wabash Valley Recycling in Terre Haute, Mobile Scrap Tire Processing and Disposal in Lafayette, KMC Waste Tire Co., Osgood, and Michaelstire Recycling in South Bend.

 

"We actually let a contract to do a state cleanup of the Wabash Valley Recycling site," said Bruce Palin, deputy assistant commissioner of IDEM. "We have a contractor selected, but the cleanup has not yet started."

 

Mobile Scrap Tire is shut down. IDEM is working with a railroad, which owns the property on which Mobile Scrap Tire did business, to get that site cleaned up.

 

Stewart remains in business and is making significant progress in cleaning up its site.

 

"It's the same story with Michaelstire," Palin said. "They're still in operation and making progress."

 

KMC is no longer operating. IDEM obtained a court order giving the state access to do a cleanup at KMC.

 

"The operator was speculating that the tire-derived fuel market was going to develop, so he started taking tires," Palin said. "Most were stored inside old chicken coops."

 

During the last five years, IDEM cleaned up more than 5 million illegally disposed-of tires, including 3.7 million tires near the town of Atwood in Kosciusko County. The agency has identified more than 5 million waste tires remaining in illegal dumps and 6.5 million more scrap tires waiting to be processed. The agency has a priority list of 29 illegal tire dumps in Indiana to be cleaned up.

 

A 25-cent fee on the sale of each new tire in Indiana goes into the state's Waste Tire Management Fund, which pays for cleanups.

 

Indiana generates an estimated 6 million scrap tires each year.

 

The most common end use for scrap tires in Indiana is landfill daily cover, according to IDEM's latest waste tire annual report. Many more scrap tires are cut into pieces and disposed of in landfills.

 

Several test burns have produced encouraging results for the tire-derived fuel market in Indiana, but projects are not being started because of the complexity and the costs of permits.

 

Playground and athletic fields have been the most popular uses of ground rubber from scrap tires. However, with the destruction of CR3, Indiana no longer has a crumb rubber supplier.

 

"Indiana does not have enough recycling capacity or re-use markets to address the waste tire materials that are being generated annually," according to the annual report. Muncie (Indiana) Star Press

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