34
BIENNIAL REPORT 2007 - 2008 . Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
equivalent of nearly 1.5 million passenger
tires. The majority of the used tires collected
are converted into tire-derived fuel (TDF) and
burned for energy recovery in utility boilers
and cement kilns. Other uses for used tires
include recycling into playground flooring and
landscape mulch, and crumb rubber for use on
athletic fields and in the manufacturing of
various rubber products.
Local Government Collection
Program
In 2007, the Illinois EPA initiated the local
government collection program for used and
waste tires collected by units of local
government. The purpose of this program is to
provide units of local government with
disposal service for all used and waste tires
collected from public and abandoned
properties located within their respective
jurisdictions. The Illinois EPA initiated this
program with the City of Chicago and the
program has steadily expanded since its
inception to include more than 40 units of local
government. The Illinois EPA will continue to
expand this program to all interested units of
local government. This expansion is
particularly important given the discontinuance
of the countywide used tire collections in 2009.
The countywide used tire collections have
outlived their usefulness given the statutory
restrictions governing the consensual removal
program and the Illinois EPA must continue to
find more appropriate and efficient ways to
spend our limited resources. Although the
Illinois EPA does not plan to conduct
countywide used tire collections in the future,
we will continue to conduct consensual
removals on a case-by-case basis to ensure
compliance with the statutory provisions.
Household Hazardous Waste
Collections:
With the assistance of local governments, the
Illinois EPA sponsored 41 household
hazardous waste collections in 2007 and 2008
at a state cost of over $2.5 million that does not
include Illinois EPA administrative expenses or
the costs to local co-sponsors for publicity,
traffic control, or other local service. Over
3,600 drums of waste were collected. Since
the program began in 1989, 459 one-day
collections have been held, with more than
79,600 drums being collected from
approximately 409,100 households and
disposed at permitted hazardous waste
facilities or recycled. Illinois EPA assists
communities with the costs of disposal of
household hazardous waste collected at long-term
collection facilities and locally sponsored
collection events. Long-term collection
facilities operate in Naperville (since October
1992) and Rockford (since 1995) and in the
City of Chicago since June 2006. The Solid
Waste Agency of Lake County conducts
Household Chemical Waste collections at
various locations in the county. In 2007 and
2008, the Illinois EPA provided over $1.7
million for the disposal of more than 9,280
drums of household hazardous waste at these
operations.
School Hazardous Waste
Collections:
In 2007 and 2008, the Illinois EPA, in
partnership with 208 schools, collected over
600 drums of hazardous materials, such as
laboratory wastes, expired chemicals, unstable
compounds, mercury containing items, toxic or
flammable materials, at an average annual state
IEPA has collected millions of waste tires for
recycling.
Household hazardous waste drop-off
