City tire drive offers community recycling potential

Pickup employee Chad Caldwell assists two Ocala residents with dropping off their tires [Gabriella Jaye Herrera].

Twice a year, the city of Ocala hosts a “Tire Waste Amnesty Day” for residents to get rid of old tires, but what does the city do with that waste?

The event was hosted on Saturday, which not only reduced thrown-out tires but will allow for the city to utilize the rubber to develop new products for the community.

The biannual event is hosted in collaboration with the disposal provider, Green for Life. Residents have the opportunity to drop off up to ten tires at two locations to be picked up and recycled by GFL. This time around, GFL reported picking up 8.08 tons, or 16,160 pounds worth of tires. Sanitation Division Head Dwayne Drake noted that the pickup is done at no charge as part of the city’s contract with Green for Life.

“We give people the opportunity to give us their tires free of charge, so they don’t end up thrown in the woods or waters somewhere,” Drake said.

Once the tires are collected by Green for Life, General Manager Michael Aguiar said they are brought to a tire recycling center to be separated, processed, grounded or mulched to be developed into some sort of “post-consumer product.” Generally, this takes the form of sustainable mulch for places like playgrounds or to be mixed into a surface basis for filling in walkways and roads.

“The mulch material that they dye and utilize in parks and playgrounds makes for a good, more sustainable mulch for drainage,” Aguiar said.

But the process goes beyond just the Green for Life company—part of the reason the average person cannot recycle tires on their own is because modern designs often have steel-belted metal acting as a second layer to reinforce the tire. Now, it’s not just a matter of breaking the tire down, but also sorting the metal out. Aguiar said that Green For Life ships out much of these belted tires to other processing factories, where they can sort and break the tires down even further to develop the sort of landscaping products you could find at hardware stores like Home Depot in a maximum of just 90 days.

“We’re excited to help the community safely dispose of their tires and eliminate dumping in our beautiful Marion County areas,” Aguiar said.

While an exact date has not yet been released, Ocala City Sanitation is expected to have their next Tire Waste Amnesty Day in October as well as a similar household hazardous waste and electronics collection next month.