Alabama completes tyre pile cleanup after three years

ERJ staff report (R&PN)

Attalla, Alabama -- After three years of work, the largest scrap tyre dump in Alabama has officially been cleaned up, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management has announced.

ADEM Director Trey Glenn hosted a ceremony last week at the former Four Star Scrap Tire Wholesale Brokerage site in Attalla, near Gadsden.

At the time cleanup began in August 2006, ADEM estimated the Four Star pile contained 8 million tyres, or 40 percent of the scrap tyres in Alabama. The agency projected the effort would take two to three years and cost an estimated $7 million, with ADEM and the Alabama Scrap Tire Commission directing the process.

The Four Star project marks the first cleanup of a large-scale tyre stockpile in Alabama, ADEM said. More than 82 million pounds (37 000 tonnes) of scrap tyre material were removed from the site, and more than 80 percent of that material made its way to end-use markets, the agency said.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)

Press release from ADEM