Atwood Tire Cleanup Scheduled
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
ATWOOD -ÊA $4.5 million contract was signed by the state to clean up the largest waste tire site in Indiana, G&M Tire Recycling, near Atwood.
"The residents of Atwood, Warsaw and Kosciusko County have waited a long time to rid themselves of this threat to their health," said Lori F. Kaplan, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the agency responsible for the cleanup.
Whole waste tires stored outdoors make ideal breeding sites for disease-carrying mosquitoes and other insects, she said. In addition, fires at such sites are difficult to extinguish. A tire fire can cause a substantial amount of air pollution, creating large amounts of residue that can contaminate nearby land and water.
More than 4.5 million waste tires, 57,000 tons from trucks, cars, farm equipment and airplanes, are on the seven-acre site, Kaplan said.
The contractor, TRI-Rinse Inc., St. Louis, Mo., expects to begin moving in equipment and setting up security at G&M Tire Recycling today. The tire removal process will begin approximately Feb. 1.
TRI-Rinse plans to shred the waste tires on the site, hauling the material to area landfills. At the landfill, operators will use it as alternative daily cover in their operations and as a substitute material for stone used in the bottom of new landfills for drainage.
TRI-Rinse expects to shred about five truckloads of tires each day, Monday through Saturday. Based on the 4.5-million tire estimate, TRI-Rinse should be finished by summer 2001.
"This longstanding problem will take a long time to clean up," Kaplan said, "but today marks the beginning of the end of this eyesore which threatened public health far too long."
Money for cleaning up G&M Tire Recycling is derived from the Waste Tire Fund, which the Indiana legislature created in 1992. The law requires 25 cents of every new tire sold in the state to be deposited in the fund.
In 1996, Indiana Department of Environmental Management spent $500,000 to remove tires from another G&M Tire Recycling site in Atwood. Those tires were sent out-of-state for use as a tire-derived fuel. [[In-content Ad]]
ATWOOD -ÊA $4.5 million contract was signed by the state to clean up the largest waste tire site in Indiana, G&M Tire Recycling, near Atwood.
"The residents of Atwood, Warsaw and Kosciusko County have waited a long time to rid themselves of this threat to their health," said Lori F. Kaplan, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the agency responsible for the cleanup.
Whole waste tires stored outdoors make ideal breeding sites for disease-carrying mosquitoes and other insects, she said. In addition, fires at such sites are difficult to extinguish. A tire fire can cause a substantial amount of air pollution, creating large amounts of residue that can contaminate nearby land and water.
More than 4.5 million waste tires, 57,000 tons from trucks, cars, farm equipment and airplanes, are on the seven-acre site, Kaplan said.
The contractor, TRI-Rinse Inc., St. Louis, Mo., expects to begin moving in equipment and setting up security at G&M Tire Recycling today. The tire removal process will begin approximately Feb. 1.
TRI-Rinse plans to shred the waste tires on the site, hauling the material to area landfills. At the landfill, operators will use it as alternative daily cover in their operations and as a substitute material for stone used in the bottom of new landfills for drainage.
TRI-Rinse expects to shred about five truckloads of tires each day, Monday through Saturday. Based on the 4.5-million tire estimate, TRI-Rinse should be finished by summer 2001.
"This longstanding problem will take a long time to clean up," Kaplan said, "but today marks the beginning of the end of this eyesore which threatened public health far too long."
Money for cleaning up G&M Tire Recycling is derived from the Waste Tire Fund, which the Indiana legislature created in 1992. The law requires 25 cents of every new tire sold in the state to be deposited in the fund.
In 1996, Indiana Department of Environmental Management spent $500,000 to remove tires from another G&M Tire Recycling site in Atwood. Those tires were sent out-of-state for use as a tire-derived fuel. [[In-content Ad]]