Melody Tuschel, Monroe County Recycling Coordinator and Outreach, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about the tire recycling event.
A tire recycling event is coming up on November 2.
Tuschel said, “We had a staggering response. Just to kind of give you a little background why it’s so important on why we do recycle our tires and we do handle them appropriately, every year, there’s approximately 290 million tires discarded across the United States, so obviously, once these tires end up in the landfill, it can take 50 to 80 years to decompose, depending on the environments and the composition of the tire, and until they completely break down, they have multiple environmental impacts, negative impacts, including becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which we all you know, that’s our native bird here in the Keys, posing serious, serious health risks. One single tire can lead to the development of tens of thousands of mosquitoes, so not only impacting our health, but our quality of life as well here in the Keys. So that’s a very important reason to get rid of those tires that are laying around your yard. Or maybe you can nudge your neighbor to get those out this Saturday at any Monroe County transfer station from 9 to 2. They’re accepting the tires for all Keys residents, municipalities included, free of charge, up to six passenger tires. They can be rims on or off, and up to 20 inch in diameter. So that would be at the Key Largo, Long Key or Cudjoe transfer stations this Saturday, from 9 to 2.”
It’s important to keep tires out of landfills.
Tuschel said, “These tires will be actually hauled up to American Tire in Miami, where they’ll be crumbled and recycled for road repairs, amongst other repurposing uses. The first event in September, we collected 157 tires. So that was a good response. October was a little less. I think we were right around 90 tires. So we’re hoping to really kick it out this last event here this Saturday.”
What other recycling events are planned?
Tuschel said, “We are looking into the food waste problem, and we have been throughout the year giving workshops in food loss, food waste, and trying to promote composting at home, sending out the education so people can divert that food waste from going to the landfill. Because, surprisingly, like the tires, food waste also takes a long time to decompose in a landfill setting, and not to mention the emissions that are caused by the whole process, the whole waste process of it being picked up curbside and going to transfer station and hauled over 100 miles to the landfill setting. So if we can divert that waste from even getting to the curb, encourage people to maybe plan their meals better. Food storage better, sharing food, even taking it to the local wild wildlife refuges, some of the Bird Rescue centers, they welcome certain food waste for their initiatives, and compost. If you can’t find any other solution for the waste, let’s compost and let’s put it back in the earth and use it for our plants.”
how can people offer suggestions or get involved?
Tuschel said, “If they go to the Monroe County Solid Waste website, my contact information is there, you are welcome to email or call me directly. I love the feedback from the community. That’s how I design my workshops and my programs to educate the community and see what goals we all can work on as a community. This Saturday, we are partnering with the city of marathon at the Community Park, and we have a food waste and compost workshop there, starting at 10am. Folks can bring an old storage container, if they would like to have some help with starting a worm bin, worm compost bin at home, or if they just want to come out and listen to the education and get some information on how they can divert that food waste at home.”
For more information, click here: https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/solidwaste