By John E. Weare, Keep Alliance Beautiful
The 500-ton pile of tires at the Alliance Landfill -- that grew in just 24 hours during the recent tire amnesty event -- is expected to begin moving next week to a facility at Julesburg, Colo.
Keep Alliance Beautiful in connection with the city of Alliance and Nebraska Department of Roads, who operated a loader and skid-steer, worked to promote and conduct the tire collection.
“The event was highly successful, we met the goal of 500 tons within 24 hours! Which probably lets us know we need to have another tire amnesty soon,” KAB Executive Director Kathy Worley said.
Landfill Supervisor Clint Fankhauser said there were 203 loads on Friday and 39 by 9 a.m. Saturday when the threshold was met. He said the rehaul process will require an estimated 42 truck loads necessary to relocate the pile. Julesburg hosts one of two plants operated by Brownell (Kan.)-based Resource Management Co., Inc., where the tires will be shredded and stored in silos before entering the recycling stream. The company’s key principal, Twylia Sekavec, said the specific market will be determined later. As with other recyclables, such as plastics, the reclaimed rubber is not as easy to move as it was a year or five years ago, she noted, speaking from a “grassroots” perspective. “The recycling market is really tough in all areas.”
Asked whether another collection could be expected for 2022, Fankhauser replied that it would be more likely in 2023 since grant funding would be potentially awarded to other area communities, Chadron, Scottsbluff or Sidney, for example, that had not hosted the event for years.
The previous tire amnesty period came in 2014, before Fankhauser was in his current position, and yielded 425 tons of tires. He emphasized the recent event was a group effort at the City as he collaborated with Randy Waggener and Tarrah Johnson, co-interim city managers, Ross Grant, head of Public Works, and Kaytlin Norris, administrative secretary. The project “required a lot of paperwork to get the application process going,” Fankhauser said.
Scheduled for five days, significant demand shortened the process. However, Fankhauser oversaw his staff as well as four extra people from Public Works who helped things run smoothly, and allowed the landfill to operate as normal.
Most of the tires came from farms and ranches in Box Butte and Sheridan Counties. By waiting those who took advantage by spending up to 4-5 hours were able to save on the usual fees.
“Overall, it was pretty positive,” Fankhauser said. “People who missed the deadline were a little bit irritated, obviously. Next time, I would like to limit to single cars or pickups -- for the littler guys -- for a whole day.”