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How Georgia is Solving It's Scrap Tire Problem

There used to be 12 million of them, strewn across the state of Georgia: worn-out "scrap" tires. That was the dire quandary facing the state of Georgia at the onset of this decade, when its Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) Environmental Protection Division (EPD) created the Scrap Tire Program (STP) in an effort to clean up and recycle the millions of tires housed in illegal stockpiles throughout the state.

Regulation
In 1993, Georgia's Scrap Tire Program began contracting with tire recyclers such as GreenMan to remove and recycle tires from existing stockpiles around the state. Funding for the cleanup is derived from a $1 scrap tire management fee charged on the retail sale of new tires.

To regulate the management of the seven million "current generation" scrap tires being produced every year, STP created a three part Waste Tire Transportation Certification Form. The manifest is used to document every shipment of tires, from the generator to the carriers to the processors. Manifests signed by all three entities are usually stored for three years at the generator's location. Every year, each generator in the state is visited by an STP inspector who verifies the manifests.

Superior Product,
New and Growing Markets
Once the scrap tires arrive at a recycling facility such as the GreenMan Technologies facility in Jackson, Georgia they are shredded into two-inch by two-inch chips which are primarily used for energy-related and civil engineering applications.

According to a recent report Georgia's Scrap Tire Management Program: An Assessment of Economic and Environmental Viability (October 1998) prepared for Georgia's DNR by the Georgia Institute of technology, approximately 62 percent are sold as tire derived fuel (TDF) to paper mills, about 25 percent are sold to building contractors for use in sewage system drainage fields; and about 13 percent of the tire chips are sold as feedstock to out-of-state producers of crumb rubber.

For example, Inland Container's paper mill in Rome, Georgia uses GreenMan's tire chips as TDF. The chips are co-mingled with bark and coal in giant boilers, and the resulting steam powers machines used to heat and dry linerboard for shipping containers.

"Without the rubber chips, our manufacturing costs would increase significantly," says Craig Kerschner, wood yard supervisor at Inland Container. "We view the rubber chips as an important and cost-effective ingredient that helps us to produce our product."

According to James Maust, manager of GreenMan's Jackson operation, other TDF customers include out-of-state power plants and cement kilns.

GreenMan customers such as Knight's Concrete, a manufacturer and installer of septic tank systems based in Covington, Georgia, find the tire chips valuable when used in civil engineering applications, such as "fill" for septic system fields.

"Until a few years ago, septic tank systems were lined with gravel. However, we now use recycled tire chips instead of gravel in the drainage lines for three reasons," said Susan Wilbanks, co-owner of Knight's. "They cost less, are easier to work with, and allow us to install the septic system faster."

Another use for recycled tires is for crumb rubber, a raw material for a variety of products.Janusz R. Mrozek of the Georgia Institute of Technology, believes that the market for high-quality crumb rubber "may be virtually unlimited." "The market for crumb rubber is an international market, not just a local one," insists Mrozek. In fact, markets for high-quality crumb rubber likely will be supply-constrained rather than demand-constrained. Potentially one such market - rubber modified asphalt (RMA) could absorb a significant volume of scrap tires, according to Mrozek.

GreenMan's president and CEO, Robert Davis cautiously concurs, adding that "rubber use in asphalt will grow but will require industry patience. Absolute market acceptance will not come until economic and technical parameters are completely demonstrated," he said.

STP Grant Programs
Millions of scrap tires that have been recycled across the state were the result of Georgia's stockpile abatement program. To clean-up the "small piles" of scrap tires, the STP incorporated a program that offers government grants to rural towns and counties after enforcement is done on piles found on private property. Also, with funding assistance from STP, towns or counties can hold scrap tire collection/roadside clean-up events to bring their scrap tires to designated collection sites for removal and recycling. To date, the STP grants have been responsible for the clean-up of over 3.3 million scrap tires.

Abatement Work Nearly Done, But...
The STP is confident that it has cleaned up most of the large scrap tire stockpiles in the state. Last October, GreenMan began clean up of the next-to-last "major league" scrap tire pile, in Roberta, Georgia, containing the equivalent of nearly one million scrap tires. GreenMan completed the cleanup this Spring.

In May, GreenMan began cleaning up what is thought to be the final major scrap tire stockpile in Georgia. The site, close to Savannah in Liberty County, contains about 1.35 million scrap tires.

Clearly the Scrap Tire Program has been a tremendous success. Once the pile in Liberty County is removed, Georgia will have removed and recycled more than 12 million scrap tires since 1993. While there is an ongoing concern of discovering a new stockpile, the STP feels that the larger piles have already been identified.

The Bottom Line?
"Today Georgia has a very specific goal for the Scrap Tire Program," Ronald G. Cummings of Georgia State University's Environmental Policy Center said. "Officials want to ensure that the scrap tires generated in Georgia will continue to be diverted into appropriate end-uses, and that Georgia does not have a reoccurrence of illegal piles of scrap tires," he said.

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