On December 11, Macon-Bibb County will allow people to drop off scrap tires free of charge at 900 11th Street from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. A person must be a Macon-Bibb County resident (state-issued ID or current utility bill required for verification), and tires will not be accepted from commercial businesses. All tires must be off the rim, and there is not a limit to the number of tires people can bring.
“We wanted to make a way for people to get rid of the tires on their property before we began handing out these fines,” says District 7 Commissioner Bill Howell. “With every tire you bring to us, you’ll be helping clean up our community.”
“This new government and this administration are making an effort to make a true difference…that we’re not going to tolerate this type of stuff,” says District 9 Commissioner Al Tillman.
“Throughout both our Clean Streets Matter and Blight Fight initiatives this year, tire piles have been one of the prevailing issues we see over and over in all areas of our community,” says Mayor Lester Miller. “Our crews, just this year, have cleaned up more than 80 tons of scrap tires from along our roads. This Commission has said enough is enough.”
The Tire Amnesty Day is made possible thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Division’s (EPD) Local Government Scrap Tire Abatement Reimbursement (STAR) Program. This grant will reimburse Macon-Bibb for the cost of transporting and processing scrap tires. It’s funded from Georgia’s Solid Waste Trust Fund.
Macon-Bibb took advantage of this grant previously and was reimbursed $9,731 for processing and transporting 64.54 tons of tires.
“This was a great way to get money back into our budget for cleaning up our neighborhoods, and with the increased amount, it will allow us to attack this type of blight even more,” says Public Works Director Tim Wilder. “Our crews have been working tirelessly to clean our streets of these piles, so any program for people and new fines will be of great help.”
“I want to thank our crews for what they’ve done the past several months; it’s time we make the effort through legislation and other programs to help them do their job,” adds Mayor Miller. “Clean streets matter because Macon-Bibb matters…and we have to take action to show people how much this matters to us.”
In June 2021, the Commission increased the penalty for dumping scrap tires to $25 per tire and up to a $1,000 find and six months in jail per violation, at the discretion of the court. Following the Tire Amnesty Day, Macon-Bibb will begin citing people caught dumping tires illegally. The Scrap Tire Amnesty Day is a chance for people to appropriately dispose of the tires before citations begin.
Two public forums were held to let businesses and people know about the new fines for dumping scrap tires. The information from those forums can be found by clicking here.