NC Tire Recycling Project May Expire

A North Carolina state program designed to encourage automobile shops and motorists to dispose of old tires properly is set to expire unless the General Assembly extends the law that authorizes it.

North Carolina's scrap tire disposal program, started in 1994, is scheduled to end June 30.

The program requires a 2 percent fee on the sale of new passenger car tires. The state collects the fees from tire dealers and distributes the money.

Most of the money is disbursed to the counties so they can take old tires from local tire dealers and residents free of charge and dispose of them. About 40 percent of the tires are shredded and buried in tire landfills and the rest are chipped and used for septic drain fields, highway construction or playgrounds.

About one-fourth of the money also goes to three other efforts -- support the clean up of abandoned tires, promote tire recycling and provide additional funding to counties.

Should the law expire, the fee will be reduced to 1 percent -- not enough to support the free programs and the other activities, Paul Crissman with the state Division of Waste Management said Tuesday. The state also would lose its authority to run the recycling and clean-up efforts, he said.

Solid waste and environmental officials warn that ending the program will increase illegal tire dumping by people who don't want to pay to dispose of the tires in a landfill.

"There would be an incentive for illegal dumping," Crissman said. "People would be unprepared to pay the fee."

Under the scrap tire program, a lot of the illegal disposal has stopped, said Charles Whittenton, Cumberland County's solid waste director.

Before then, "it was just easier for people to go someplace and throw them in the woods," he said.

Legislators banned the dumping of whole tires in landfills in the Scrap Tire Act in 1989 -- that won't be affected should the disposal program expire.

North Carolinians dispose 10 million tires a year, Crissman said.

Since the law took effect, the state has cleaned up more than 300 scrap tire heaps -- more than 6 million tires -- around North Carolina. Still, 12 to 15 scrap tire piles are discovered in North Carolina every year.

State Sen. Fountain Odom, D-Mecklenburg, introduced a bill last year to postpone the June 30 sunset of the tire program. Odom said he would like to see North Carolina implement the program permanently.

"I have a lot of support for this," Odom said. "I'm optimistic. The cost of administering this program is very small."

The Legislature could take up the bill when the regular legislative session begins May 28 after its special session this week on redistricting. Charlotte News Observer