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The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) announced it is again offering counties up to $150,000 over three years to clean up discarded scrap tires from their roadsides.

Lowndes County Engineer David Butts said the county is working on a strategy for using the funds to clean up used tires in the area.

“Mrs. [Kim] West is working on getting the paperwork through,” Butts said. “There is a portal we will use, and we are trying to find a location where people can bring the tires. We know we want to do it, but we haven’t worked out all the details that need to be in place.”

ADEM’s Scrap Tire Right of Way Program is available to all 67 counties. The funding is from the state’s Scrap Tire Fund administered by ADEM. One dollar from the sale of each tire in Alabama goes into the fund, which is used to cover the costs of cleaning up illegally discarded tires as well as promoting recycling and other alternative uses of scrap tires that keep them out of landfills.

The Lowndes County Commission voted to participate in the program at its Sept. 23 meeting. The agency announced the rollout of funding in an Oct. 22 media release.

According to Butts, ADEM will pay the county $5 for every tire turned in, up to $150,000 over three years. The program will generate income for Lowndes County, through the recycling of the county’s used tires as well as those turned over by area residents.

“This is open to the community,” Butts said. “If [residents] have tires, they want to get rid of, they can bring them to our site and every so often we will take them to [a designated site.]”

The recent rollout is the latest three-year cycle for the program, which has been effective in the past in incentivizing counties to pick up littered scrap tires from rights of way and dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner.

“Old, discarded tires strewn across the landscape are a problem in virtually every county, small or large, rural or urban,” ADEM Director Lance LeFleur said in a media release. “These tires are not only eyesores, they are also environmental and health hazards, including breeding grounds for mosquitoes, rodents and other pests. This funding enables counties to address these problems when they might not otherwise afford the cost in manpower and equipment to do so.”

To take part in the program, the counties must sign an agreement with ADEM. They are reimbursed by ADEM for expenses in the collection and disposal of the scrap tires, including recycling the tires for beneficial use. 

“It sounds like there is hardly any work done on our behalf, except for taking the tires to a landfill,” Butts said. “We can accumulate the tires by bringing them to our site and then we just take them to the landfill and [ADEM] will pay us a cost.”

The program is similar to ADEM’s program that reimburses counties for the costs of cleaning up unauthorized garbage dumps. That program is funded with a fee on garbage disposed in municipal landfills. 

“With these two programs, we are working directly with our local governments to clean up areas across the state,” LeFleur said. “Together with our Help Keep Our Waters Clean program, which combats litter in our watersheds, we believe we are making a positive impact. But certainly, there is a lot more work to do. As a department, we are committed to continuing to look for creative ways to safeguard the state’s natural resources and its natural beauty.”

For more information about ADEM’s Scrap Tire Program, click here.