Missouri woman faces jail for recycling tires into flower planters

A Missouri woman says that she is prepared to go to jail after authorities in Sugar Creek threatened her over a recycling project that turns tires into flower planters.

Toni "Bones" Shelton told KFVS that she had been repainting old tires to turn them into planters, but the city is frowning on her project.

"I was just really interested in recycling and I'm really big on self-sufficiency," she explained.

Sugar Creek, however, claimed the number of tires she was storing could attract mosquitos and lower property values.

"We'd asked her to put them somewhere else because there were quite a number of them," Sugar Creek Chief Herb Soule insisted."We try to keep people from accumulating tires because they retain water and they attract mosquitos. They detract from property values in the neighborhood too."

Shelton was issued a citation, but she said she was refusing to pay the fine based on principle.

"I don't want my kids to see me back down and not follow my heart," she said.

Shelton is now storing most of the unused tires inside of an old truck, and Soule said that her home was no longer in violation of any municipal codes.

Her case is expected to be heard in Sugar Creek municipal court next week.

Watch this video from KFVS, broadcast July 1, 2013.

KFVS12 News