Gains are being made in reducing the number of old tires dumped along Kentucky roadways. Kentucky counties can apply for three thousand dollars in waste tire recycling and removal grants. The grants are administered through the Kentucky Division of Waste management. Recycling and Local Assistance manager Gary Logsdon says the goal is to find a market for these worn-out tires.
“As of right now, waste tires have no value. They are negative value because it cost to reuse them, but the goal would be, in the future, that they would have a value."
Logsdon says waste tires are used as fuel and in highway pavement. Much of the state grant money goes to support county waste tire amnesty programs. That’s where local residents can turn in waste tires and county governments dispose of them properly. The aim is to find more commercial uses for old tires.
Logsdon says old tires can also be ground into crumb rubber mulch…which is useful in playgrounds. They can fuel power plants or go into asphalt. The waste tire grant applications must be in by the end of August.