Westmoreland Cleanways and Recycling is teaming with the Westmoreland Conservation District’s West Nile virus program to offer a discount on tire recycling.
The program is meant to help clear away scrap tires before they collect water and become a potential warm-weather breeding ground for mosquitoes that can transmit the virus.
During the recycling event, from 8:30 a.m. to noon April 10, a grant will subsidize a $1 per-tire reduction in the normal fees charged to customers at the Westmoreland Cleanways recycling center, 355 Pleasant Unity Mutual Road, in Unity. The discount isn’t available for businesses.
Normal recycling fees start at $3 for a passenger car or light truck tire without the rim, $4 with the rim. Higher fees apply for tractor-trailer, farm tractor and heavy equipment tires.
Demand for tire recycling at the Westmoreland Cleanways center is steady throughout the year, and response to the annual West Nile discount events has been strong, according to Executive Director Ellen Keefe.
“They’ve been very successful,” she said. “We’ve gotten between 400 and 500 tires.”
She said the center each year receives 5,000 or more scrap tires that “people didn’t know what else to do with. Otherwise, they’d just be lying around. We also are getting a lot of illegally dumped tires.”
Westmoreland Cleanways will not charge at the April 10 event for illegally dumped tires collected by groups that register with the 2021 Great American Cleanup of Pennsylvania and notify Cleanways before April 7. Visit gacofpa.org for information about the cleanup and to register.
For more information about the recycling center, visit westmorelandcleanways.org or call 724-879-4020.
According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, people 50 or older and those with compromised immune systems are at an increased risk of contracting West Nile virus. Most people fully recover from the virus. Hospitalization and respiratory support might be required in more severe cases.
West Nile encephalitis or meningitis can lead to a high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness and paralysis.
Last year, state officials reported 623 positive West Nile virus cases among mosquito samples tested from throughout Pennsylvania, including one case in Westmoreland County and 96 in Allegheny County. There were no area human cases among eight reported in the state.
