Waste Tires

Every year, millions of tires reach the end of their useful life. While tires are durable and built to last on the road, they can become a significant environmental problem when they are dumped illegally or disposed of improperly. The good news is that most waste tires can be recycled into new products or managed through approved recycling and disposal programs.

Why are Waste Tires an Environmental Concern?

Long lifespan: Tires do not readily decompose in landfills or the environment.
Illegal dumping: Tires are one of the most commonly illegally dumped waste materials, creating eyesores and cleanup costs for communities.
Water and soil impacts: if they are not handles or managed properly, tires can release small particles and chemicals into the environment
Mosquito breeding: Tires collect rainwater, creating ideal breeding sites for mosquitoes that can spread diseases
Fire hazards: Tire fires are extremely difficult to extinguish and can burn for days or even months. They produce thick smoke and can release harmful pollutants into the air.
Space Problem: Tires are bulky, completely non-biodegradable, and shape-retentive. If thrown into regular landfills, they trap methane gas and mechanically "float" back to the surface over time, puncturing and destroying protective landfill liners.

Prevent Mosquito-Born Diseases.pdf

Waste Tire Regulations in Kansas

Unlike oil and batteries, tires are not federally classified as Hazardous Waste. Instead, they are strictly regulated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).

To prevent illegal dumping, fires, and pest breeding, the state prohibits throwing whole tires in standard trash or landfills and mandates strict permits, processing standards, and storage limits for businesses. Key regulations and requirements include:

Disposal Bans: Whole, unprocessed waste tires cannot be thrown into landfills or standard dumpsters. They must be processed first (e.g., shredded, chipped, or cut into pieces) unless they are solid rubber or authorized as landfill daily cover.
Storage Limits: Businesses and individuals cannot store more than 50 waste tires across multiple locations without a permit. Storing more than 1,500 used or waste tires requires a formal waste tire permit from KDHE.
Transport Regulations: Any individual or business transporting 5 or more tires at a time must be a Waste Tire Collector and display a current permit issued by the KDHE. Haulers are required to maintain strict records.

A complete list of KDHE-permitted facilities and transporters is available on the Waste Tire Facility Permit List.

Kansas Waste Disposal Sites - Report with Maps

Waste Tires as Craft Projects

KDHE has a policy that specifies the conditions under which a person may create craft items from waste tires without obtaining a waste tire processor permit. A person that creates craft items from waste tires will be exempt from the waste tire processor permitting requirements if that person meets all of the following standards:

Stores no more than 50 whole waste tires
Stores a combination of less than 100 whole waste tires and products made from waste tires;
Prevents mosquito breeding and other disease vectors in the whole waste tire storage area and in the waste tire craft item storage area; and
Stores unusable waste tire scrap in waste containers and disposes of scrap at least monthly

Background and additional policy detail can be found on the KDHE Waste Tire Portal

Waste Tires as Crafts.pdf

Tire Recycling in Kansas

Waste tires are valuable materials that can be recycled into many useful products, including:

Playground and athletic surfaces
Rubber mulch for landscaping
Running and walking trails
Livestock mats
Parking stops
Civil engineering and construction materials
Tire-derived fuel used in certain industrial facilities
Steel removed from tires is also recycled as scrap metal.

Kansas boasts its own dedicated recycling facilities - like Champlin Tire Recycling based in Concordia, which process thousands of tons of scrap tires and manufactures them into sustainable products. About 40% of their processed tires are converted into tire-derived fuel (TDF) for industrial use or used in civil engineering applications. They manufacture turned-out tractor tire livestock feed bunks and cut large semi-truck tire sidewalls to be used by dairy farms as heavy weights to secure silage tarps.

They also operate Back Atcha, a plastic scrap extruding plant, where they blend recycled tires with plastics from milk jugs and pop bottles to manufacture durable, weather-resistant park benches, tables, and recreational seating.

Tire Disposal in the Lake Region

Residents are encouraged to dispose of tires through approved collection programs. Depending on the county or community, local disposal options may include:

County transfer station or landfill
Municipal collection sites
Special tire collection days or events
Tire retailers when purchasing replacement tires

Most retail tire dealers in Kansas accept used tires for a small recycling or disposal fee that helps support proper recycling and management.

Additional details are available on each of the county pages: Anderson, Coffey, Franklin, Linn, Miami, Osage, and Shawnee.

Tire Taxes in Action

The State of Kansas' waste tire recycling efforts are supported through their Waste Tire Grant Program, which provides hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to local governments and K-12 schools to incorporate recycled tire materials (such as playground surfacing, walking trails, and rubber mulch) into public projects.

This grant program is funded by the Kansas Tire Excise Tax, which is a flat $0.25 state fee applied the sale of every new tire mounted on a new or used vehicle when it is sold at retail for the first time. Used tires, recapped tires, retreaded tires, and inner tubes are exempt.

A list of waste tire grant projects that have been awarded within the Lake Region is available on out Grant Page -->>

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