DEQ Provides Over $500K To Set Up Scrap Tire Programs In 48 Communities

DETROIT (WWJ) - The Department of Environmental Quality is granting $587,000 across 48 communities this year to set up drop-off events for car tires.

"Michigan is probably one of the leading states in the nation for the management of that particular waste stream," said Mike Marshall with DEQ.

Marshall is the scrap tire program coordinator for Michigan and says these tires never decompose:

"You could bury a tire in the dirt and in a hundred years dig it up, and it's still going to be a tire," said Marshall.

"In the late 80s there were tire fires, nationwide, these giant piles of tires would catch fire (from) lightning strikes, vandalism and that sort of stuff - and once a tire catches fire, a pile of them anyway - it is extremely difficult to put out," he said.

Those fires would bring health risks, like the chemicals released in the air and the run-off into the water shed Marshall said.

Improperly dumped scrapped tires pose a fire hazard as well as a mosquito breeding ground in the summer.