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Butler County event targets tire recycling for health, environmental risks: How to go

Hamilton Journal News - 11/1/2019

Nov. 1--Butler County residents who participate in "Waste Tire Recycling Day" on Saturday can score a triple victory for themselves, the environment and public health, officials said.

Residents can take up to 10 tires, for cars, trucks or tractors, to Ross High School, 3601 Hamilton-Cleves Road, and drop them off for free for recycling. The collection will happen from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tires can be on or off the rims.

Anne Fiehrer Flaig, executive director of the Butler County Recycling & Solid Waste District, said a 10-tire-per-household limit will be strictly enforced.

"Rumpke processes the tires and ships them," she said. They are used as a combination of fuel, applications for roadway paving, and also for running tracks, she said.

"There are lots of applications for reuse of that rubber," she said. "Those are a few examples."

There's a public health benefit to turning in tires, rather than allowing them to lie around, where they may fill with water and become perfect breeding places for mosquitoes.

"The Zika virus that emerged a couple years ago, that kind of brought to the fore the whole issues of mosquitoes," she said. "They're vectors for multiple illnesses -- West Nile, we've had several instances of here in Butler County and the state of Ohio."

Another disease is Eastern Equine Encephalitis, also mosquito-borne, which has been transmitted in Indiana, Michigan and Northern Ohio. "Anything we can do to get those tires shredded and out of areas where they can collect water is a good for the public, and protects public health," Fiehrer Flaig said.

"They're a problem as just a nuisance item that people find dumped on properties and on roadways," she said.

People with questions can call the solid waste district at 513-887-3653. The county's health department found money to help underwrite the tire collection.

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