If you have old tires, next week is the time to get rid of them.
Disposal fees will be waived from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 8 through 13 at the State Highway Deptartment at 1055 Early Drive.
The tire amnesty applies to car, truck and tractor tires.
Off-road, heavy equipment, solid rubber press-on and foam-filled tires will not be accepted. Tire retailers cannot participate.
Tires can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and pose a public health risk, Clark County Emergency Management Agency Director Gary Epperson said. Epperson also serves as the county’s solid waste coordinator.
“You can’t find a waste tire with water in it that doesn’t have mosquito larva in it,” he said.
Kentucky produces 7 million waste tires a year, Epperson said. Some people refuse to pay the tire disposal fee, resulting in an increase of waste tires that serve as little more than mosquito breeding grounds.
“Nobody wants to leave them with the tire dealer,” he said. “There’s a tire disposal fee. People want to take them back home with them thinking they may use them again, but they don’t have value. They’re a liability.”
While the state has sponsored tire amnesties in the past, there’s no guarantee it will again.
“If anybody is hoarding these things waiting fur us to do it again, please don’t,” Epperson said. “If you have an opportunity to get rid of a tire, you need to get rid of it. When you buy new tires, let them take your old tires. Don’t take them home with you.”
Epperson said the last time the state sponsored a tire amnesty, Clark County collected around 16,000 tires, but collected as many as 34,000 the previous time. Madison County’s recent amnesty brought in 44,000 waste tires.
“We’re expecting 10,000 plus,” Epperson said. “Anywhere between 10-20,000.”
Epperson plans to run the collection all week, citing his decisions previously to extend the collection.
“Everybody doesn’t have every day off,” he said. “Some of the other counties have done Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I just go ahead and do it all week. It gives them a bigger window to participate.”
Contact Casey Castle at ccastle@winchestersun.com.
