"This site has been a nuisance to the local community for years. It will take the contractor about 10 months to clean up the site," said Daniel Schuette, director of Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources' Division of Environmental Quality. "I'm excited to stand here today as we begin the process of removing approximately 1 million tires from Missouri's environment."
Jim Robbins, a Kansas City area scrap tire hauler, began accumulating tires on the site in the 1980s. Robbins planned to cover the tires with rock from the quarry. However, the first scrap tire law was enacted in 1990 making the site an illegal tire dump and preventing him from covering the tires. In 2005, the department reached settlements with Mr. Robbins and the property owners for the cleanup of the tires.
TRI-Rinse, of St. Louis, will remove about 1 million tires from the site and then plans to shred them for use as a substitute for a traditional gravel leachate collection layer in a landfill.
Missouri's Scrap Tire Fee will fund the tire cleanup.