Tire Tips
What Goes Around, Should Come Around!
Maintaining tires properly can help your tires last longer. This not only saves you money on replacement costs, but also helps reduce the number of tires requiring disposal. Millions of waste tires are generated in New York State each year!
Follow these helpful hints:
- Use the recommended size tire for your vehicle. Undersized tires can lose 10% of their life and waste gas.
- Keep tires inflated at the recommended pressure listed in your vehicle owner manual. Check and adjust pressure when the tire is cool (tire pressure increases as the tire heats up with use).
- Start and stop your vehicle slowly when possible and decelerate before corners. Fast stops and starts and tire squealing wear more rubber off your tires and take miles off their operating life.
- Drive the speed limit. Higher speeds increase tire temperature and cause extra wear.
- Keep tires balanced and rotate every 6,000-8,000 miles (or as recommended by your tire manufacturer) to save hundreds of miles in wear.
- Radial tires improve gas mileage. Steel-belted tires are generally the most efficient.
- Slow down on rough roads and avoid potholes. Damage to your tires will decrease their useful life.
- Finally, consider buying retread tires to encourage markets that reuse old tires. Tires which are improperly disposed are an unsightly public nuisance.
To find out how to properly dispose of old tires, call your local recycling coordinator or your local DEC Regional Office.
Tire dumps are an ideal breeding ground for disease-bearing mosquitoes and animals and cause significant air and water pollution if they catch on fire.
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