Dispose of old tires April 22 at Cameron

Western Missouri Correctional Center at Cameron and Chillicothe Correctional Center are among participating state institutions who will accept light truck, passenger and farm tractor tires from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in recognition of Earth Day, April 22. Signs will be posted directing you to the facility’s drop-off point.

Tires collected at penal institutions throughout the state will be transported to Central Missouri Correctional Center at Jefferson City where they will be shredded into rubber tire chips. These chips will be sent to the University of Missouri-Columbia where they will be mixed with coal to power the university’s power plant. The mix is expected to lower the university’s fuel costs by $100,000 per year.

Missouri Department of Corrections has operated a nationally recognized tire recycling program in conjunction with the Department of Natural Resources for the past four years. Low custody inmates clean up targeted illegal tire dumps around the state as identified by DNR. The tires are transported for shredding.

Since March 1995, the department has cleared 17 illegal tire dumps and recycled over 13,000 tons of tires. In December 1998, the department’s Waste Tire To Energy Program won the Innovations Award from the Council of State Governments for excellence in government programming.