MONTGOMERY, Ala. — More than 1 million pounds of scrap tire materials, the equivalent of more than 68,000 passenger tires, have been removed from a site near Robertsdale.  Work began in May with support from Alabama Department of Environmental Management and the Alabama Scrap Tire Commission.  All remediation activities were completed in 38 days through subcontractor C.W. Owens Enterprises LLC of Gadsden.

This project marked the third completed cleanup of a large-scale unauthorized scrap tire dump funded by the Alabama Scrap Tire Fund.  The Alabama Scrap Tire Fund was established by the Scrap Tire Environmental Quality Act which is funded with a $1-per-tire fee that has been collected on each replacement tire sold in Alabama since 2003.

The Robertsdale site was selected for cleanup based on the estimated volume of scrap tires, the proximity to residential areas, schools, and health care facilities as well as the potential human health and environmental threats posed by the site.  ADEM uses a stringent pre-qualifying process to assure interested remediation contractors have the appropriate experience and proper equipment to accomplish a large-scale cleanup with oversight from ADEM.

To date, more than 7 million scrap tires have been removed from unauthorized, large-scale disposal sites, with the majority of the scrap tires being beneficially re-used in manufacturing processes or as industrial fuel.