Q. What happens if tires are discarded in a public place and a citizen wants to clean them up? I live in the Kapi'olani area and there is an empty lot near the 2600 or 2700 block. Near the curb, there are four or five tires that have been there since November. What can I do about it?

A. City recycling coordinator Suzanne Jones said a citizen could take four or five tires to a city refuse convenience center, but that tires are not collected by the city's bulky item pickup service. State law bans tires from the landfill and the H-Power garbage-to-energy plant, she said, which means tires have to be collected separately and recycled.

The best way to prevent problems with tire disposal is to leave the old ones with the dealer when you buy new ones, Jones said. But she also encourages people who see tires that have been dumped to call city refuse collection workers at 523-4424.

She said dumping is a big problem for city crews. "They are putting a great deal of effort into finding out who the culprits are who are dumping tires," she said. When people or businesses dump tires instead of recycling them, Jones said, they force government taxpayers to pay for their cleanup.

Jones said that crews have found that some businesses or individuals dump repeatedly rather than take responsibility for their tires. And sometimes the landowners may not even realize that their property is being used as an illegal dump.

For more information on disposal and recycling, go to www.opala.org.

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