Pile of tires at South Memphis recycling business riles neighbors - WREG NewsChannel 3

Neighbors tired of tires piled at South Memphis recycling business

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Some South Memphis residents say a tire recycling business that moved in about three years ago is destroying their neighborhood.

The owner of Memphis Tire Recyclers says he wants to bring jobs to a community he loves. But neighbors say this kind of business does not belong in a residential area.

“I am battling cancer now. And they put all this down here,” neighbor Beverly Jones said. “They can also draw rats and mosquitoes. That’s a health hazard.”

Jones and neighbor Alice Love have lived in the neighborhood near South Parkway and Kerr for more than 30 years. They say three years ago Memphis Tire Recyclers moved into the community.

Recently, they noticed a huge pile of hundreds of tires that neighbors claim have been sitting there for a week.

Love says she can’t help but think the business chose this neighborhood because of who they are.

“Just because we are a poor neighborhood and can’t afford to fix things up like we would like to, it gives no one the right to make our neighborhood the garbage dump for tires,” she said.

But the owner of Memphis Tire Recyclers, David Burgess, said who lives in the neighborhood and where it’s located has nothing to do with why he picked the location for his business.

He said he is continuing his dad’s legacy.

“My father had a business in that neighborhood for over 30 years, so I know a lot of the people in that neighborhood. A lot of people who work for me live in the neighborhood and frequently visit my father,” Burgess said. “My goal is to provide jobs, to do what we can to bring awareness to recycling to the community and we would like to be helpful partners. We don’t want to take away from any community. Our goal is not to hurt anyone or to target a community.”

He says the tires piled up because he was trying to help another company and wasn’t aware of how many tires they had.

He says they use environmentally safe products to clean the property.

“We have been there for three years, and they haven’t seen an uptick in mosquitos because we simply do not have them. We make sure that we are diligent about maintaining, and spraying and we have a regular schedule so that there are no flies, mosquitos, or anything that you mentioned,” Burgess said. “Nothing that we do will be to hurt or harm this beautiful city. We love this city, that’s why we invested in this city.”

Burgess said the pile of tires will be gone in 30 to 60 days. He also promises to never let it pile that high again.