#stretchyourdollar

Every had old tires on your property that you need to get rid of? Finding a way to dispose of tires can become a difficult and costly affair. 

I learned this lesson while living in Washington Sate, USA. Our family had just moved into a rental property. We were broke at the time and had to scramble every month just to pay rent. The place we were renting was very inexpensive, and, truth be told, a tiny little dump. However the landlord was willing to forgo a credit check and work with us with late payments. It was a rough time.

The prior tenants left about 10 old tiers on the property which we inherited for better or worse. Our town had a reputation for being a snobbish little retirement community with a small town mentality. This meant that the police department had nothing better to do than drive around town as code enforcement pestering residence about city code infractions. Old tires, as it turns out, is one of those property issues. 

One Saturday morning a local officer interrupt our weekend with a pink written warning over the tires. On Monday I called down to the police station and explained that we were renting the place and the tires were left by former tenants. The officer informed me that the tires were then the responsibility of the landlord and they would be happy to take his information to speak with him. I said I would speak with him first and call back if need be.

The landlord said the former tenants were his daughter and son-in-law. He wasn’t sure if they still wanted the tires. After two weeks of waiting to hear if the tires would be claimed or not, I got tired of waiting. Code enforcement would be back with a citation at some point, yet I didn’t want to strain relations with the landlord by pestering him to deal with the situation when rent was already an issue. So I began looking into how to get rid of the tires.

First, we didn’t have a truck, just a small compact car. If I really jostled things around I was able to get 3 tires in the car at one time out of shear stubborn will. Then it was a matter of finding a place to dump them. Several calls and Google searches latter I had found out that very few places are willing to deal with used tires. Most charged to take them off your hands and the least expensive was $5 a tire. Times 10 tires. I didn’t have $50 to take care of this issue, especially when it was not my issue to begin with.

I kept searching. Eventually someone told me they had hear a rumor that Les Schwab would take tires for free. I called the company up. They said they would take up to 10 tires per day at no cost. Finally! In my little compact car, it took 4 trips to get all the tires down there. Les Schwab said they send the old tires to a company that recycles the rubber. The tires are shredded and then made into industrial rubber mats for workshops, kitchen, warehouses, etc.