Virginia Deals With Abandoned Tyres Problem

The US state of Virginia is getting closer to eliminating millions of abandoned tyres that for decades have accumulated at hundreds of locations across the state. And now many of them are put to better use. The state has been working since the early 1990s to clean up the tyre piles, which have long been a major environmental and health problem because they pose a fire hazard and are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The old tyres can be recycled, with the material used as a landfill cushion, mulch and as a fuel source.

Since 1983, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has identified 25 million tyres at more than 1,200 locations across the state. About 130 locations, with an estimated two million tyres, still need to be cleaned up, said Allan Lassiter, the DEQ’s Waste Tyre Management Program manager. 

“It is a very big problem,” said Lassiter, who has worked on the tyre-pile prevention and cleanup effort for 20 years. “It is a problem of the past, but we are still dealing with it now.” The state began cleaning up tyre piles in 1993.

“In the’90s, we had no recycling of tyres; none were recycled,” Lassiter said, noting as a comparison that the recycling of glass and paper has been around for decades. “Now all are re-used or recycled. Particularly the cleaner tyres, there are a lot of uses.”

The state can handle about seven million new waste tyres each year. Most of the largest abandoned tyre piles have been cleaned up, he said. But the goal is to remove the remaining tyre piles and ensure that no new ones emerge.

The program, which started in the 1990s, was funded initially by a tax of 50 cents on each tyre sold, which generated about $2.5 million a year. The 2003 General Assembly raised the tax to $1 per tyre, effective July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2011, with all extra revenue dedicated to tyre pile cleanups.