There are many things we can do to reduce the amount of material we throw away each year. Recycling programs continue to expand and add more materials to the list of things we can reuse, and used automotive tires are not surprisingly on that list.
Tire Materials
Used automotive tires have several recyclable components in them. Rubber and steel make up the majority of the tires, and while separating the two is sometimes challenging, tire recyclers are finding ways to grind the material up to reuse the rubber and steel mix.
The rubber is extremely durable even after the tire is worn down and is no longer safe for your car. And when mixed with other materials, it can have significant benefits. Often the tire is not reused as a tire, but each tire needs to be evaluated by tire recyclers before the use is determined.
Environmental Benefits
There are some things that tire recycling can contribute to protecting the environment, like stabilizing landslide areas by amending the soil to help reduce the potential damage from runoff over slopes and excavated areas. The rubber tires are ground into small chips and then added to the soil to help to stabilize it, reducing soil loss and damage.
Another way to recycle tire materials is to add them to asphalt to help stabilize the road surface and extend the useable life of the asphalt. The same ground rubber chips are an excellent replacement for gravel or can amend it so that less gravel is required. In some places, landscapers use chipped rubber tires to replace mulch in flower beds because it stands up to weather and helps to contain soil during rain or adverse weather.
Reusing Tires
If you have been to a park with a children's play area, you may have seen reused tires used as part of the gym sets. Larger tires make excellent sandboxes, and the surface under the play area is sometimes a rubberized material made, in part, by chipping rubber tires and processing them into a solid, yet forgiving surface.
Nurseries and farms sometimes use old tires to create wind stops or barriers around small plants that need protection and often use the tires without doing anything to them. Recycling the tires that you are taking off your car is often as simple as letting the tire shop take care of them for you, but if you have old tires at home that you are not using, take them to a recycling center so they can be processed, repurposed, or reused.
While throwing the tires into a landfill is not encouraged because they take so long to break down, the ground rubber from the tires is sometimes used as a medium to spread over the landfill's surface during capping and closure.
For more information on tire recycling, contact a company like Intrawest.