On Friday, September 29, Errol Lord — Code Enforcement officer for Archuleta County Development Services Department — held a very successful Waste Tire Collection event. By 9am, Lord and his team had already collected close to 200 tires… despite collection hours scheduled not to begin until 9am.
The team continued collecting through 1pm, at which time they had met the collection events max capacity of 1,000 tires.
In association with Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division, the County was able to obtain a $5,000 grant which assisted in disposal of the collected tires. The County would like to thank JLM Tire, who will be handling all tire recycling.
Repurposed tires can be used for various purposes including tire-derived fuel, molded products, crumb rubber for roads and engineering projects.
Properly disposing of tires also keeps Archuleta County clean and healthy as tires can act as breeding grounds for mosquitos, become fire hazards and devalue property when stockpiled at private residences.
Lord and Development Director Pam Flowers are discussing more free clean-up events in the future. “It’s a collective effort to clean up the area,” Lord commented. “I want to thank everyone that was involved and participated in making this event a success. It was teamwork at its best!”
Lord and Flowers will continue to work on grants and state funded programs which could benefit the community and hope to announce them in early 2024.
Though the grant obtained through CDPHE is only available to the County every 30 months, residents can contact the state Waste Tire Division any time of year by calling 303-692-2097 or visiting www.colorado.gov/cdphe/wastetires for more information.
Ashley Springer began working as Archuleta County Communications Specialist and Public Information Officer in 2023.