You probably use at least four of them every day, but do you know where to put them when you're done?

Old tires can be tough to get rid of, and can be harmful to the environment if disposed of improperly.

But in Berrien County, there's a new program designed to take a care of both problems.

Berrien County health officials say tires can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and rodents when people leave them in a ditch or a body of water.

That's one of the reasons they're trying to make it convenient for residents to recycle those old tires as often as possible.

“We get car tires in we get truck tires in, we get oversize tires as well. And they have come from all over the place, residents sometimes farmers will have some in their back field,” said Berrien County environmental specialist Jill Adams.

After years and thousands of miles of use, these tires have found the end of the road...or have they?

“All of these tires even the dirty ones they're able to recycle those they pull out the metal and they can recycle the metal. There are more and more products being made from recycled tires every day,” Adams said.

For the second year in a row, Berrien County has held two separate recycling events to help residents properly dispose of their old tires. Adams says they try to hold one in the summer and the other in the fall; one in Northern and the other in Southern Berrien County.

There is a small fee for the drop-off, depending on the size of the tires, which is common for tire recycling.

“It's a little bit lower than a person would pay if they took their tires to a tire changing facility or if they took their tires someplace else, but it does help us recoup the costs for running the program,” Adams said.

And for the people running the collection, and the customers, it's well worth the cost.

“Much better than to come here than in rivers or ditches. This is the right thing to do is to bring it here to be recycled,” Adams said.

Berrien County held collection days in May, and these will be the last ones this year. They're only for Berrien county residents.

Friday is the last day for the collection from, 8am to noon, at the corner of route 12 and Flynn road in Berrien County.

From that site, the tires are taken to Deerpath Recyclers in Dowagiac.

Adams says there they'll be recycled into materials such as landscaping mulch and playground flooring, and some of the newer tires may be re-tread and re-sold.

For more information on recycling tires or other hard-to-dispose of items in Berrien County, click on the link to resource recovery's website below.