BRATTLEBORO — Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD) recently expanded its tire recycling facility on Old Ferry Road to better serve its member town transfer stations and the public. A newly installed bunker holds more than 1,000 tires - enough for collection by a licensed tire recycling contractor.
WSWMD executive director Bob Spencer said in a news release that transfer stations operated by six member towns have recently not been able to find contractors to pick up and recycle tires dropped off at transfer stations. Due to driver shortages and declining markets for recycling tires, companies are not willing to drive to the remote transfer stations to pick up relatively small quantities of tires.
“We recently visited our member town transfer stations in Dover, Jamaica, Readsboro, Stratton, Townshend, Wardsboro, and Wilmington to see what assistance they needed on a range of solid waste issues, and all of them except Townshend, which does not take tires, asked for assistance in recycling tires,” said Spencer.
“We work through the Northeast Resource Recovery Association to recycle some materials, and they have a contractor licensed by the state of Vermont, BDS Waste Disposal, Inc., that will collect a load of tires once there are at least 10 tons. That equates to approximately 900 passenger vehicle tires, which is a large quantity, much more than a town would generate in even several years.
“So we built a new concrete-block bunker that can hold at least 1,000 tires, and BDS will use a truck with a grapple to load the tires from the bunker into a large trailer. We have notified the towns that they can haul smaller truck loads to WSWMD. We have had to increase our charges for tires to cover the higher fees, as well as the increased labor at WSWMD, but towns can pass that cost on to their customers.”
WSWMD will limit use of the bunker to its member towns and customers who purchase access stickers to use the WSWMD transfer station on Old Ferry Road. Retail outlets for tires will not be eligible to use the District facility since most of them have their own collection programs.
“As with many recyclable materials, costs have increased, but at least tires can still be recycled and diverted from landfill disposal,” added Spencer.
For more information about WSWMD tire recycling, and other materials, visit windhamsolidwaste.org.