SENNETT - The number of tires collected in Cayuga County's “Tire Round-Up” has decreased, but that makes Bruce Natale happy.

The round-up collected 12,000 tires in its first year, but it is down to 3,000 to 4,000 in this year's round-up.

“I think we have made a dent of how many are out there,” Natale, the event's coordinator, said Saturday while looking over the morning's collection.

The county also has found fewer abandoned tires from its Owasco Flats and Sterling Nature Center properties, Natale said. Nine tires from the county's natural spots came into this year's round-up in comparison to the 30 or 40 tires that were found dumped in past years.

On a sunny morning, 20 volunteers and a crew of people serving weekend time in the Cayuga County Jail unloaded the old tires from vehicles pulling into the Natural Resource Center's parking lot. The old tires were divided between four massive piles.

“Typically this gives people an opportunity to clean up roads near their houses or the stuff they've found in their hedgerow,” Natale said.

Cayuga County's annual tire recycling event got started in 2003 because of the desire to eliminate water-logged abandoned tires as breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that transmit the West Nile virus.

“They like tires, old watering cans, old bird baths and pool covers,” Natale said.

The county charged more this year for the tire recycling: $1 for each tire with a 30-inch diameter and $5 for bigger tires. The price increased in order to pay for some tires to be trucked to be shredded in Seneca County.

Tires had to be divided by the event workers into piles of tires that have rims and tires that don't have rims. The tires were divided so the right tires would be ready to go to two different destinations.

Nucor Steel uses the whole tires to produce carbon for its reinforced steel products. The tires with rims are dropped in whole into the industrial recipe for steel, Natale said.

A no-no for Nucor is any tires with balancing weights. The weights have lead in them that would cause Nucor to violate their air pollution permits, Natale said. Instead, the lead weights are recycled at a scrap dealer.

The rubber from the Seneca County-destined tires will be used for drainage product.

The first four round-ups recycled 40,000 tires. A total of 650 pounds of lead has been removed and recycled from tire balancing weights.

Organizers also estimate 100 million mosquitoes have been eliminated by recycling 40,000 tires. A single tire can serve as the hatchery for over 100,000 mosquitoes.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net