Columbus and local organizations clean up with Tired of Tires event

Columbus city workers, volunteers, and local organizations teamed up today to clean up the city and help out the environment.

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Columbus city workers, volunteers, and local organizations teamed up today to clean up the city and help out the environment.

How many tires would you think are lying on the streets of Columbus? One or two hundred? How about over 800? That is how many tires volunteers, city workers, and city officials cleaned up off the streets today in just 3 hours.

Keep Columbus Beautiful and Pick it up Possum Town worked together to create the Tired of Tires event to get the retired tires off the streets, and out of yards and ditches around the city.

Co-Chair of Pick it up Possum Town Doug Kilarski said their goal was to clean up tires but they first needed to be able to dispose of them.

“We were dedicated to figuring out how to do this,” Kilarski said. “There needed to be another option and when we researched, this is the free option provided by the city. Wastepro will pick them up and dispose of them properly.”

They partnered with WastePro for their tiring task. WastePro allows Columbus citizens to bring up to 30 tires a month to their facilities for proper disposal.

Executive Director of Keep Columbus Beautiful Sasha James says they also hope the event will educate residents.

“I hope this brings awareness to people that instead of illegally dumping the tires and trash all over the city, you have a place that you can bring it,” James said.

While Tired of Tires is a large-scale project, Keep Columbus Beautiful and Pick It Up Possum Town are constantly working to keep Columbus clean and beautiful.

Members said it’s easier when their neighbors help.

“Our goal is to beautify and keep the city of Columbus clean,” James said. “So we just want everybody to do their part in assisting the city of Columbus. We just want the citizens of Columbus to come together with us and do their part, which they can do by bringing their tires up here(to WastePro) and furniture instead of dumping them all over the city.”

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