Crawford County will host a free waste tire collection event on Saturday, October 6 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Crawford County Road Department Shed located at 107 Euclid Road in Steelville. County commissioners agreed to sponsor this program for the surrounding community to help get rid of excess tires that often end up along county roadsides.

    Waste tires of all kinds will be accepted at this collection, and no fees will be charged. Those who plan to take advantage of this opportunity should note that those who drop off should be prepared to unload all tires themselves and that tires will not be accepted from businesses. The collection is open to residents of the Ozark Rivers District, including Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties.
    The event is a collaboration of several agencies, including the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Crawford County Commission, in partnership with the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District (ORSWMD) and the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC).
    At the Crawford County Commission meeting held on September 11, commissioners discussed some of the issues involved in hosting this kind of event and spoke with Richard Allen at DNR to get clarification on some questions.
    One concern the commission voiced was the possibility that there could be too many tires brought in for the event, or even afterwards. Because there is no fencing around the collection site, it is possible that people could continue to dump tires on the site even after the collection period is over.
    DNR will provide tractor trailers to hold the tires, but no more than three at one time. If more tires are collected than will fit in the trailers, the tires have to be stacked at the collection site pending pickup at a later time. According to Allen, an average trailer can hold about 1,200 to 1,500 tires, if packed well, but it is possible that this event could bring in up to 10,000 tires. A similar collection in Rolla resulted in about 9,000 tires.
    “We have a concern with (the possibility of) lots of tires stacked up out there,” Presiding Commissioner Leo Sanders told Allen, noting that the site is near a school. “What is the return time to come down and pick up the remaining tires out there?”
    Allen replied that it is dependent upon the trucking contractor that is responsible for the transportation. “If you fill all three that weekend, and you have a bunch of tires on the ground, they may be able to pick up one (trailer) and drop off one at a time. It just depends on if they have trailers and drivers available. On Fridays, they usually have more drivers and trailers. So, it could be as late as the next Friday or it could be earlier. It’s hard to plan and say for sure. But, they are usually good about getting in sometime that week to get another trailer in and out that week.”
    Allen also pointed out that people will bring in larger types of tires at these kinds of collections and encouraged maximizing space by putting smaller tires inside them. If there is a lot of wasted space, fewer tires will fit in the trailers.
    Sanders again questioned whether all the tires would indeed be picked up and Allen assured him, “They will pick up a full (trailer) and drop off an empty until they’re all gone.”
    If people have large numbers of tires to dispose of, they should contact DNR directly to request a clean-up crew for their property.