Today our local county mosquito control division held one of their periodic tire amnesty days, meaning locals could dispose of up to 20 tires for the low low cost of FREE. Typically, our local landfill charges an $8 flat rate for dumping "hazardous" waste, which tires fall under in their definition, and technically you;re only allowed to dump four at a time for that charge. Yes, we'll admit to sneaking >4 in from time to time, but we don't like to make a habit of it as maintaining solid diplomatic relations with your local landfill means playing by the rules as much as possible.
And we ALWAYS have tires to get rid of, particularly since we acquired our Bend Pak tire mounting equipment. So when we have a chance to dispose of our growing tire fort free and ethically, we jump at it.
We loaded up our open trailer with the 20 most in-the-way tires on the property, which cuts about 2/3 of our current supply of disposables, and headed down to the Volusia County Mosquito Control facility at the New Smyrna airport.
Welcoming signs greeted us upon our arrival. "Thanks for being a responsible citizen!" they seemed to say.
A crew from mosquito control was ready and waiting to assist. They had most of the tires off our trailer before we even got out of the truck and got our gloves on.
We took along one of our feathered pals who did a little community outreach and posed for a few shots with the mosquito control crew.
And by the time we left some more conscientious citizens had pulled in to drop off their loads as well.
Anyway, this felt way better than just pushing them out of the back of the truck at the end of a dirt road.
Man I wish we could take ours to the dump. We have to b leave then at the curb and wait for you to 2 weeks for them to pick them up.
Sc let's you take them to a convenience site and get rid of as many as you wish.
Bring em here and I'll get rid of em!
Cactus
HalfDork
12/2/23 10:20 p.m.
In Ohio (at least in my county) you're allowed to get rid of 10 per address per year for free. On tire buyback day you're allowed to get rid of as many as you can and they'll pay you $2 a tire.
The hitch: you need a permit to transport more than 10 junk tires per trip. Something about cutting down on illegal dumping. Man the elected yahoos sure come up with great laws don't they?
We pay $4/tire on new tires to cover their eventual recycling, because that is covered up front you can just drop used tires at any tire shop on their pile and drive off. Nobody likes extra fees but the system seems to work.
Does your local mosquito control actually use them for traps?
In reply to Cactus :
Must be your county, ours hammers us. My sister can put out 4 once a month on bulk day so I usually dump them on her
ProDarwin said:
Does your local mosquito control actually use them for traps?
Loose tires are apparently the #1 source of easily controllable breeding sites in CFla. So removing a bunch of tires from circulation removes a bunch of future mosquitos from circulation. Like, it takes enough out of circulation that it's worth putting the effort in at this end because it pays bigger dividends in chemicals you don't have to put into the environment to remove the same amount of bugs.
Ah, so it's just removal. I thought they would convert them to traps. In other countries traps made from tires both solve the above problem and apparently have huge success trapping and destroying the mosquito population on a regular basis - without any spraying. Would love to see it happen in the US (assuming it truly is that awesome)
Where I live you pay a fee when you buy tires and can then drop your old ones off at a tire store for disposal, since it's already paid for. Helps avoid tires dumped in the woods and such.
In Minneapolis we can get a voucher to drop off a certain number of tires per year at the local transfer station (not sure exactly how many but I think it's up to six or eight) but being able to get rid of 20 would be nice. An annoying problem in the inner city is people who just leave them in the alley and then we residents have to deal with them.
I wish they had that here ,
but most of my dead tires are on rims I want to keep ,
probably cost $8-$10 each to dismount them and dispose of the old tire
times 50 pieces is a bunch of money !
ProDarwin said:
Ah, so it's just removal. I thought they would convert them to traps. In other countries traps made from tires both solve the above problem and apparently have huge success trapping and destroying the mosquito population on a regular basis - without any spraying. Would love to see it happen in the US (assuming it truly is that awesome)
Stagnant water, like the kind you get in a tire sitting outside that has seen some rain, is about the best breeding ground you can get for mosquitos.
I had never heard of the trap thing, pretty interesting!
For anyone interested in what ProDarwin was talking about:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-to-build-mosquito-trap-from-old-tire-180958954/
Whoof, some of those tires there have seen a VERY hard life!
wvumtnbkr said:
Sc let's you take them to a convenience site and get rid of as many as you wish.
Bring em here and I'll get rid of em!
We're headed to SC in a few weeks, might be worth tossing a few old tires in a trailer. Do they GAF about out-of-state tags?
