The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) recently announced a plan offering counties up to $150,000 over three years to clean up discarded scrap tires from roadsides.
ADEM’s Scrap Tire Right of Way Program is available to all 67 counties. The funding is from the state’s Scrap Tire Fund administered by ADEM. One dollar from the sale of each tire in Alabama goes into the fund, which is used to cover the costs of cleaning up illegally discarded tires as well as promoting recycling and other alternative uses of scrap tires that keep them out of landfills. This is the latest three-year cycle for the program, which has been effective in the past in incentivizing counties to pick up littered scrap tires from rights of way and dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner.
“Old and discarded tires strewn across the landscape are a problem in virtually every county, small or large, rural or urban,” said ADEM Director Lance LeFleur. “These tires are not only eyesores; they are environmental and health hazards, including breeding grounds for mosquitoes, rodents and other pests. This funding enables counties to address these problems when they might not otherwise could afford the cost in manpower and equipment to do so.”
To take part in the program, the counties must sign an agreement with ADEM. The counties are reimbursed by ADEM for expenses in the collection and disposal of the scrap tires, including recycling the tires for beneficial use. The program is similar to ADEM’s program that reimburses counties for the costs of cleaning up unauthorized garbage dumps. That program is funded with a fee on garbage disposed in municipal landfills.
“With these two programs, we are working directly with our local governments to clean up areas across the state,” said LeFleur. “Together with our Help Keep Our Waters Clean program, which combats litter in our watersheds, we believe we are making a positive impact. But certainly, there is a lot more work to do. As a department, we are committed to continuing to look for creative ways to safeguard the state’s natural resources and its natural beauty.”
Besides funding efforts to clean up illegally discarded scrap tires, ADEM has used money from the state Scrap Tire Fund to promote alternative, beneficial uses of used tires, which include paying for the use of rubber-modified asphalt to pave roads and parking areas in three state parks and a St. Clair County roadway, as well as the use of recycled tires in playground surfaces and walking tracks.
