Waste Tire Collection Held In Kankakee On Saturday

SPRINGFIELD—The Illinois EPA and the Kankakee County Planning Department will co-sponsor a countywide used tire collection in Kankakee this Saturday, May 14. 

 The collection will be held at the Kankakee County Health Department parking lot, 2390 West Station Street, Kankakee, from 9 am - 3 pm.

 Illinois residents can participate by bringing their used tires to the designated collection point.  Used car, truck and tractor tires will be accepted, but not large industrial or off-the-road tires.  The maximum number of used tires any individual may bring is 1,000. 

 There is no charge at the collection, but participants must sign a Consensual Removal Agreement stating they will not accumulate used tires in the future and that they have no used tires remaining on their property.  

 Those who have participated in previous collections are ineligible.  Businesses that generate used tires (i.e., tire retailers, trucking companies, salvage yards) are not eligible to participate in these collections. 

 “With the presence of serious mosquito-related diseases such as West Nile Virus and other forms of encephalitis, the removal of mosquito breeding habitats is critical to the protection of human health in Illinois,” said Illinois EPA Director Renee Cipriano.

 “This is another way for Kankakee County residents to eliminate environmental and health hazards from their properties,” Director Cipriano added.

 The Northern House Mosquito (Culex pipiens) is the primary carrier of West Nile Virus and other diseases.  It is also the mosquito species whose larvae are most often found in improperly managed used tires.  Since used tires that are improperly managed and allowed to accumulate water provide a prime breeding habitat for known disease-carrying mosquito species, the Illinois EPA’s Countywide Used Tire Collection Program provides a vital service to units of local government and the citizens of Illinois.

 The Illinois EPA has been conducting countywide used tire collections since 1990 using funds from the tire fee assessed on retail customers.  Over the past 15 years, the Illinois EPA has co-sponsored 406 countywide collections which resulted in the collection and proper disposal or recycling of more than 57,000 tons of used tires (the equivalent of more than 4.5 million passenger tires) from 82,000 citizens. 

 The used tires that are collected from these events are converted into tire-derived fuel, which is burned for energy recovery, or recycled into various materials including playground flooring, horse arena flooring, rubber landscape mulch, and crumb rubber for use on athletic fields, running tracks, and the manufacturing of various rubber products for the automotive and home improvement industries.

The Illinois EPA plans to co-sponsor 34 countywide used tire collections throughout the state this year.  The counties selected for collections are done so via request by units of local government and the collection sites are strategically located so that every Illinois citizen can participate in a collection without driving a great distance to the collection site.

 The 2005 Countywide Used Tire Collection schedule, along with other information about the waste tire program, is available on the Illinois EPA’s web site at: http://www.epa.state.il.us/land/tires/waste-tire-schedule.html