Road Warrior

Michael Turton Tread lightly if you speak to Roger Chirico about the problems that discarded tires are creating for him, and for Philipstown taxpayers. At a town board meeting late last year, Chirico, Philipstown's highway superintendent, reported that disposing of just 14 tires had cost $1,400. At the time he emphatically pointed out that funds earmarked for scrap tire disposal don't exist in either his roads budget or the town's overall spending plan. While some of the tires were from his own department's vehicles, many had been picked up along the town's roadsides, Michael Turton presumably dumped there by people unwilling to pay the cost of proper disposal.

Speaking with the PCN&R last week Chirico said, "I'm [i.e., the highway department is] paying for this out of the goodness of my heart—but my heart's getting tired!" He did not indicate whether or not the pun was intended.

The problem is getting worse—both the number of tires, and the cost of their disposal. Chirico estimated he now has more than 150 used tires in the highway department's yard on Fishkill Rd. Included in that cache are 40 motorcycle tires, which he says were likely left by the roadside by a commercial shop.

Chirico disposes of used tires through Tire Recovery, a Middletown business. The cost per tire escalates rapidly as tire size increases. The fee to have car tires picked up is $1.50 each, but the cost of having one tire from a large front-end loader hauled away can be as much as $320.

"I've called everybody, even (New York State Senator) Vinnie Leibell, and everyone has the same problem," Chirico said. "Why do we have so many tires? Because people have to pay. How can I get the dollars in my budget to take care of this?" he asked.

Chirico said he feels that the increase in the number of tires being thrown out along area roads is yet another result of the poor economy. "This started to be a real problem last fall," he noted. He added that the fine for roadside dumping is $1,000 and that Putnam County Sheriff's deputies have issued tickets on occasion, but those cases are few and far between.

Landfills are the most common facility for disposing of refuse but most do not accept tires. Tires are not biodegradable, take up large amounts of space, and collect water, becoming breeding grounds for mosquitoes and the diseases they carry.

In large numbers tires also create a fire hazard. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) website lists 21 tire fires that have occurred in the state since 1989. Most involved thousands of tires. DEC also estimates that state-wide 18 to 20 million tires must be disposed of annually.

According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a staggering 290 million scrap tires must be dealt with annually nationwide. EPA further estimates that about 80 percent of those tires are recycled for use as fuel, in civil engineering projects, ground and made into other products, used in rubber-modified asphalt, exported to be turned into retreads, or used in agriculture and other miscellaneous uses. Increasingly, scrap tires are also being used in playground surfaces.

Michael Giachinta, owner of Putnam County Tire, turns to the same Middletown service that the Town of Philpstown uses for disposing of tires. "It's just expensive," he said. "I thought the price would have come down by now but it hasn't. I think it must be the transportation costs involved." Giachinta added, "People think the $2.50 per tire they pay when buying new tires pays for recycling but it doesn't: that money goes right to the State." Giachianta said he receives 25 cents from the $2.50 fee. Putnam County Tire stores its scrap tires in a trailer at the back of its Route 9 yard. "The trailer prevents a real eyesore, and the tires can't gather water." He said that just recently an environmental group brought in 40 old tires that had been plucked from the Hudson River as part of a cleanup.

Meanwhile, the means for funding disposal of Chirico's burgeoning collection of scrap tires remains in doubt. Betty Budney, long-time member of the Philipstown Town Board oversees the town's recycling efforts. "In the past we've had cleanup days and people have been able to bring tires. We've talked about having another cleanup but it doesn't look like we'll have enough money this year. We'll have to wait and see over the next month or so, but I don't see it happening at the moment," she said.