Avoid an eyesore

Every day you see that set of worn snow tires in your garage. You could dump those tires by the river, as some do. But that’s not cool. Nor is it legal. You can sneak them in your garbage, one at a time. But that’s not right, either. So you do nothing.

In garages throughout Washington state, scrap tires languish. There are proper ways to dispose of old tires; some tire stores will do it for you for a small charge. And you can take them to Spokane’s Waste-to-Energy plant and garbage transfer centers; fees apply.

But still, our counties are filled with worn tires with inadequate places of final rest. Tires are not easy to dispose of – by individuals, businesses or communities. That’s why you see huge tire piles along Inland Northwest roads, sometimes associated with auto salvage yards.

Mosquitoes love tire piles. Imagine that you have been wandering in the desert for days and then stumble upon a fresh body of water. The warm stagnant water that collects in tire piles is as delicious to mosquitoes as fresh water is to humans. They breed like flies in it. And some of those mosquitoes carry West Nile virus. Snakes and rodents like tire piles, too. Tire piles can also catch fire.

The Washington Department of Ecology is overseeing the cleanup of scrap tire piles throughout the state, including piles in Spokane, Sprague, Newport, Ritzville and Othello. Money for the cleanup comes from the state’s Waste Tire Removal Account, funded with the $1 fee charged on every replacement tire sold. Most tires can be recycled for use in other products.

Ecology hopes to use some of the money on education for consumers. The department also wants to provide money to local governments to enforce ordinances that prohibit tire piling and help them sponsor tire amnesty days where people can get rid of those garage tires without paying fees.

The Waste Tire Removal Account sunsets by 2010. The scrap tire problem won’t go away by then. The fee should be renewed; some legislators tried without success last session.

Spending $1 per tire every few years won’t break consumers. Those small fees support community health and aesthetics. Scrap tire piles not only attract mosquitoes, snakes, vermin and fire-starters, they are downright ugly. We need to get rid of them now – and well beyond 2010.