Mexico-US Cross-Border Resolution of Waste Tire Disposal

This paper examines the waste tire problem along the Texas-México border and explores the possibility of evaluating aerial imagery in GIS based software in order to identify clandestine tire piles. The discarding of tires has been poorly regulated. As a result, many old tires end up in illegal dumps where they become a hazard to human health and the environment. Costly tire fires are a common but unnecessary occurrence that release carcinogens into the atmosphere and liquid hydrocarbons into water tables. Health officials and parents alike also worry that discarded tires can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, rodents, and other disease carrying vectors. As scrap tires can be a valuable resource rather than a problem residual, an opportunity exists to clean up old large hazardous piles and monitor the creation of new ones. However, government officials and recyclers lack an efficient means to locate unknown piles. New technologies are promising for the continued effort to recycle discarded tires.