The catastrophe of tires

Editor: Susan: John, the cooking gas is finished, can you buy one for me please?

John: Bring the gas bottle, I would buy the gas after I am finish changing these tires.

Susan: I have a question to ask you, what do you do with these old tires?

John: If you take a look to the back of my house, I usually dump some to the back of my house and I burn some.

Susan: My god, it is like a grave yard of tires to the back of your house.

These tires are a habitat for rats, cockroaches, and mosquitoes. I do not think you would want that “dreadful aedes aegypti mosquito” breeding up around your house. This mosquito is responsible for spreading

Chikungunya and Dengue fever. I remember couple years ago when there was an outbreak of Chikungunya, a lot of young and old people were having a lot of pain in their joints and could not reach to the bathroom on time to do number one and number two.

Rats spread Leptospirosis and cockroaches as they crawl around, bacteria, dirt and other contaminants cling to their legs and body which can cause Cholera, Diarrhoea, and Typhoid.

Burning tires releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which contributes to global warming and climate change. You can also develop respiratory problems due to the fumes emitted by the burning process. Burning tires produce thick black smoke that contains high levels of pollutants like cyanide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, benzene, and styrene.

John: I cannot store the tires around my house and if I burn them, it is harmful to me and the environment. What am I supposed to do with my old vehicle tires?

Susan: You can fill some of the tires with soil and plant vegetables in them. This would save you some money on vegetables. Vegetables in the market is $5.00 or more. You can also plant flowers in some of the tires and beautify around your house. The Government can implement shredding tires for making stronger concrete. Have a look at this video and let us see how it is done (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsEDLDoPdlY&t=54s)

Kimani Wiseman