Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management Executive Director Tom Ganser speaks with board members about tire collection during a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Adkins.

By Liz Adkins
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management District discussed the potential of offering tire recycling services to county residents during a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

At the board’s January meeting, KCSWMD Executive Director Tom Ganser brought up the idea of the district helping subsidize collecting tires for recycling. Ganser said he spoke with County Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty, who told him the highway department typically collects two trailers of tires per year. The department retrieves tires they find alongside roadways.

Ganser also discussed tire recycling with local tire shops.

“Roughly somewhere between 500 to 2,000 customers a month are purchasing tires,” said Ganser. “To run those numbers, if we were to get every tire coming back through us, we would be talking about a bill close to $80,000. That’s if everybody grabbed their tires from the tire store and brought them to us. Realistically, we’re not going to do that much.”

Lewis Salvage offered KCSWMD a roll-off to collect tires with rims at no charge. Ganser said the last time the depot held a tire collection event was in 2018, where a semi was fully loaded within four hours.

Board Member Cary Groninger asked Ganser if he saw any other type of item collection as having more priority than tires. Ganser said he was mainly set on handling tires because of the amount the county highway collects on a yearly basis.

Ganser also noted concerns with having enough laborers available for a tire collection event, as well as the location for where a collection trailer would go. He said he personally did not like the concept of holding an event.

“Our concern has been (the district has) some extra money to deal with,” said Ganser. “What do you want to do with it? This would be a good way of using it. My personal view … I don’t like events. People get hurt. The volume is crazy when it comes in like that. You’re stressing your people … and it’s me and two others. I’ll do whatever the board wants me to do, I’m just being realistic.”

Board Member Ashley McGinnis suggested the possibility of collecting tires on a quarterly basis versus once a year.

The board asked Ganser to determine additional costs for roll-offs and possible labor to discuss the topic further at their next meeting.

Groninger also suggested the possibility of KCSWMD funding large trash and recycling dumpsters on an annual basis for Kosciusko County’s small towns.

“I guess I’m trying to decide if that fits in our mission as the solid waste board,” said Groninger. “I’m looking at ways we can impact these small communities.”

“Our original task was to reduce volume into the landfill,” said Ganser. “It’s really where the board wants to go with it.”

Groninger also said he could get Ganser in touch with Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe to spread the word to small towns and gauge interest.

The board’s next meeting is at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 11.