Used Tire Collection Leads to Environmental Benefits

In the past years, Liberty has offered a free tire collection and recycling event in the spring for our customers in the Joplin, Missouri service area. Along with the City of Joplin, Liberty employees work to remove tires from customers’ vehicles and load them into the trailer of a truck that takes the tires to a processing facility near Kansas City, where they are chipped into small pieces to create tire-derived fuel (TDF).

The use of TDF reduces the environmental hazards associated with improper disposal of used tires. Utilities are able to use TDF because their power plants provide a controlled atmosphere, which includes environmental controls and continuous emissions monitoring to protect the environment.

Liberty and the City of Joplin have been working together on this event since 2003. On average, more than 2,000 tires are donated annually at the event. Since 2012, more than 42,000 tires have been diverted from landfills.

Benefits of using TDF:

• Saves landfill space
• Removes tires from environment, reducing the need for tire landfills
• Reduces the amount of illegal tire dumping
• Reduces mosquito-breeding habitat, mosquitos, and the West Nile Virus
• Preserves our natural resources by replacing coal and other fossil fuels

Did you know?

 On average, one scrap tire per year is generated for each person in the United States.