Maybe if we could eat them, people wouldn’t throw them away. Nah, people waste lots of food.

Wonder if there’s a market for tire swings? We had them as kids. Lots of fun. Don’t see a lot of tire swings these days. There’s probably an app, and kids swing on them virtually via an iPad or Kindle.

Hmmm, there’s surely a better use for them than taking up space on a hillside next to their brethren and alongside fast-food containers and other trash.

Tires. Those rubber marvels that, unless deflated by a nail or worn to smoothness, propel us safely toward our daily destinations.

We rely on them so much that our moods are deflated when the tires lose their air.

The responsible among us have them recycled when we buy new ones. But there are those who think tossing them over the hill constitutes disposing of them. Out of sight, out of mind.

But the tires are not out of sight. I see them littering the ravine, where they collect water and serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry diseases such as Encephalitis and West Nile Virus. Other walkers and cyclists using one of the nature trails in Floyd County, Indiana, see them regularly, too.

How is this OK, to litter the hillside with old tires? Even if it’s private property adjacent to public land, did someone actually say, “Ah, just toss ‘em out back?”

You know they’re going to be there long after many of us are dead, right?

It takes between 50 and 80 years for rubber to decompose. Our grandkids, maybe even great-grandkids — yours and mine — will see those tires polluting the environment. They’ll know you didn’t care about the world they inherited. I do.

But you are not alone in your penchant to pollute.

Six million tires are disposed of annually, many of them illegally, in Indiana alone, according to CCE Inc. tire recyclers of New Albany, Indiana. The federal Environmental Protection Agency says hundreds of millions of tires are scrapped each year in the U.S., where millions more are scattered in ravines and empty lots, tossed into waterways and woodlands.

Nearly all states have laws regulating tire disposal. Old tires can be recycled and used in the making of shoes and tarps and more. They also can be shredded and repurposed for playground surfaces and asphalt.

It’s not hard to be good stewards of the environment. We just have to care what we leave behind, including what’s on the hillside out back.

Duncan is the editor of the Jeffersonville, Indiana News and Tribune.