Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 6, 1994 TAG: 9404060088
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The consortium has completed an agreement for the program with the state Department of Environmental Quality, Waste Division, which will fund it.
The money will come from the 50 cents people in Virginia have been paying since 1990 into a Waste Tire Trust Fund.
Pat Therrien, consortium manager, was hoping to start a regular mobile shredding service in March, but the winter's two ice storms caused a delay.
The shredder ran for the first time Tuesday at Montgomery's Mid-County Landfill.
Participating localities for the program's first phase will include the counties of Bath, Botetourt, Craig, Giles, Montgomery, Floyd, Franklin, Lee, Scott, Smyth, Washington and Wise, and cities of Norton and Bristol.
The shredder will be taken to each participating locality once a month. These localities will accept old tires from individuals, local tire haulers and dealers. Some may charge a handling or disposal fee, at least until a market is established for the shred.
Only tires with a Waste Tire Certificate will be processed. The certificate is Virginia's new tracking system for where waste tires go from dealers and haulers, and aims to cut off the stream of tires flowing to illegal dumps.
Once the system is in place, the consortium will start working with localities to identify and eliminate illegal tire piles in the region.
``The really big piles with 10,000 or more tires will require additional planning,'' Therrien said. ``Although, when we succeed in establishing a high-value market for tire material in Southwestern Virginia, it could easily become an economically feasible private venture to process the big piles and get them to that market.''
The regional shredding program should consolidate recovered tires into one stream, increasing the chances of establishing a good market for the shred material which is left from the process.
``I am focusing on finding a high-value end user for the shred,'' Therrien said, ``because that is the only way I see to establish a long-term environmentally and economically sustainable program.''
Potential uses for tire waste ranges from tire-derived fuel to crumb rubber as a recycled material for new products.
``Until there is an effective statewide enforcement program, it will always seem easier and more profitable to a few people to drop tires over a bank, instead of bringing them to a legal recovery site that charges to take the tires,'' Therrien said. ``We cannot afford to rely on low-value uses as a long-term solution.''
by CNB