Scrap Tires

The Division of Materials and Waste Management (DMWM) of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) regulates the generation, transportation, storage, collection and recovery of scrap tires. Ohio EPA defines a scrap tire as any unwanted or discarded tire, of any size, that has been removed from its original use. DMWM also takes applications for no-cost cleanups of scrap tires, which DMWM's Scrap Tires page links as No Fault Applications.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name scrap tire records among its standard record sources. They answer two questions on a property with tires on it or a tire business in its history: did the business need a registration, permit or license, and was a tire pile ever removed with state money.

• Transporters register. Ohio EPA says anyone transporting more than 10 scrap tires in Ohio must first register with it, and that registered transporters and licensed scrap tire facilities must file an annual report by January 31 for the previous calendar year. Ask for those reports where a tire business operated on the property.
• Tires used as material need approval. Ohio EPA says anyone beneficially using whole, cut or shredded scrap tires must first obtain its approval, unless the project involves 100 tires or fewer or the use is preauthorized in OAC 3745-580-801, and that a preauthorized use still needs a notification to Ohio EPA and the approved health district. Where tires were built into a project on the property, ask whether the approval or notification is on file. Other wastes used in place of disposal are on the Beneficial Use Program page.
• Some piles were removed at state cost. Ohio EPA says a provision put into the state's scrap tire laws in 1993, Ohio Revised Code 3734.85(E), allows state-funded cleanups of small tire piles without later cost recovery where six conditions apply. The cleanup is open only to parcels where the tires came through an estate by bequeath or devise, or where the current owner is a victim of scrap tire open dumping and no responsible party has been identified, and the applicant must state that no financial benefit was received from the tires. Ohio EPA says a parcel must hold 100 to 10,000 tires, the upper limit having risen from 5,000 as of September 30, 2021. For SFY 2025 the page counts 211 scrap tire remediation projects, 210 no-fault and 1 enforcement.

What the record shows

The kind of facility decides what paper it should have. Ohio EPA describes them this way:

Where a tire pile is seen on a site visit, ask for any registration, license, enforcement or cleanup file on the property by the route under Getting the file.

Where to look a site up

• DMWM's Licensed Solid Waste and C&DD Facilities page is a dashboard that DMWM says covers scrap tire facilities and transporters among others, updated nightly. Ohio EPA says the dashboard's Licensed Facility List shows only currently licensed facilities, and that under certain conditions a facility may temporarily operate under an expired license. The Scrap Tires page links it for the registered transporter list.
• DMWM's Issued Actions/Permits list includes rows whose descriptions begin Scrap Tire, among them Scrap Tire Transport, Scrap Tire Beneficial Use and Scrap Tire Approval, dated 2016 to 2023 when read, each linked to its document; see DMWM Issued Actions/Permits.
• Open dumping of scrap tires is reported to Ohio EPA's toll-free scrap tire hotline, 877-372-2621. No-fault cleanup applications go to DMWMScrapTire@epa.ohio.gov, and the Central Office Scrap Tire Unit is at 614-644-2621.

Getting the file

The pages read do not say where scrap tire files are kept. Ohio EPA has no central repository for all its records: each division and district office stores its own files. Many records are in the agency's eDocument search. For others, use the online file review request form; Ohio EPA says the best first contact for a file review is the district office where the facility or site is located. See Access Public Records.

Sources

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency pages, read October 15, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Scrap Tires
• Issued Actions/Permits (the page shows the date October 6, 2026, without saying what the date is)
• Materials and Waste Management (read October 7, 2026)
• Licensed Solid Waste and C&DD Facilities (read October 7, 2026)
• DMWM eServices (read October 7, 2026)
• eDocument Search (read October 7, 2026)
• Access Public Records (read October 14, 2026)