Tire Disposal in Chicopee, MA

Tires are one of the oldest entries on the state ban list. Whole ones were shut out of landfills on 31 December 1991 and out of transfer facilities on 1 April 2000, under 310 CMR 19.017.

The reason is mechanical rather than chemical. A whole tire traps air, so buried in a landfill it works its way back to the surface over the years and breaks the cap. They also hold water and breed mosquitoes, and a tire fire is close to impossible to put out. Shredding before any landfill disposal solves all three, and shredding means processing, and processing means a fee.

Budget roughly $5 to $20 each around here. Still on the rim usually costs more, because the steel has to be separated at the processor. Four off the rims added to another job is a small line. Thirty in a garage is its own visit.

Where they finish

They get shredded first, then head either into industrial boilers as tire derived fuel or through a grinder into crumb rubber. The crumb goes into playground surfaces, running tracks, athletic fields and rubberized asphalt. It is one of the better recycling stories on the whole ban list, because there is an actual buyer at the end of it.

Why there is always a pile

Tires collect because getting rid of one is awkward. A tire shop takes your old set when they fit new ones, usually with a small fee folded into the price. But a set you changed yourself, or a set that came with a used car, or the four the last owner left in the garage, have nowhere obvious to go.

Which is why the classic call here is a garage or cellar clearance with tires buried in it. Count them and say the number, because they price per tire on top of the load rather than by the space they occupy.

Farm and equipment tires are a completely different conversation. A tractor tire is enormous, frequently filled with fluid, and processors charge a great deal more. It comes up less inside Chicopee than out in the hilltowns, but it does come up and it needs its own quote.

Check the city first

Chicopee residents can take tires to the drop off center on Baskin Drive, which is open Tuesday through Saturday and accepts them along with mattresses, appliances and scrap. If you have four and a vehicle, that is the cheaper answer and we would rather say so. Thirty of them, or no way to move any, is when a truck starts making sense.