Every day except on austerity Fridays and weekends, the transfer station in Lower Base accepts old tires, according to Solid Waste Management Director Alex Chong.
With the bulk of them coming from tire shops, at least 60 percent of junk tires collected over the last few years have been shipped off-island already, even as the transfer station continues to receive more tires from shop owners, trash collectors, residents and cleanup volunteers.
Transfer station records show that last month, it received a total of 19.04 tons of junk tires. In September 21.14 tons of junk tires landed in its processing yard and in August, 19.28 tons were received.
Chong said they have pretty much the same average tonnage for those three months last year.
The CNMI government’s main concern is to ship these tires to an off-island destination, he added.
Chong said junk tires pose both environmental and health problems. When dumped just anywhere they are eye sores that can cause wildfire. Each tire can also be a breeding ground for mosquitoes, rats and other pests that can harm not only humans but vegetable crops.
Although creative people can turn junk tires into a swing or even flower pots, there are still a lot of them that have to be shipped off-island.
Shipments, however, do not happen too often. The last time involved a 14-foot container van with 17 bales of junk tires. A bale is composed of 80 to 100 junk tires compacted by the use of a baling machine.
Lydia Parks, the contractor hired to deal with the island’s recyclables, said the basic idea of recycling is to re-use products in order to slow down the need for new raw materials and conserve natural resources.
In the case of paper, for example, it can be recycled again and again so the industry does not have to cut trees as often.
But unlike paper, junk tires don’t usually end up as tires again. In China, where most of them are sent, junk tires are processed into different products.
Some companies have chipping machines that break junk tires into small rubber chips that can be used for landscaping.
Depending on their sizes, these chips are good for outdoor and indoor pavements, cushions at playgrounds and sports amenities like track and field and fighting arenas.
This direct way of recycling tires, Parks said, is not that costly.
The more expensive process involves melting junk tires and mixing them into asphalt for road construction or into different household products like flower pots.
Junk tires can also be burned to generate power, Parks said.
Recycling tires in any case may not be easy but is important in the ongoing efforts to protect the environment and save natural resources.
