If you spend a bundle to get some top - of - the - line , high carrying into action tire , you ’re credibly pretty connected to them . But while checking regularly to ensure they ’re properly inflated , keeping your front end by rights align and other unremarkable maintenance canextend the life of your tires , eventually all tyre don out . Most tires have tread - wear indicator that come out when the tyre treads are endure down to the legal limit . But you could also do a childlike tryout by placing a penny into the groove . If you may see the top of Abe Lincoln ’s head , it ’s prison term to head to the tire store [ author : TireRack.com ] .

But what should you do with your quondam tires ? You could stick them in your backyard and make them into plantation owner . You could dump them in an empty quite a little , if you need to be an irresponsible litterbug . You could heave them over the fence at night into your locallandfill , which likely no longer occupy them . Or you could burn them , if you do n’t care about pollute the melodic line with severe toxin .

We ’re just teasing you , of course . If you ’re a proficient citizen , you wo n’t do any of those thing . You ’ll dispose of your tire the creditworthy way , by recycle them .

Americans tire out about 290 million tires a class , and they reprocess 233 million of them , according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [ germ : EPA ] .

These days , it ’s pretty easy to do . We ’ll explicate how it ’s done and what happens to your recycled tires on the next dyad of pageboy .

Tire Recycling Centers

These days , manytiredealers are willing to recycle your sure-enough tires for you if you buy a new pair . Sometimes there ’s a little fee of $ 2 or $ 3 for the recycling [ rootage : Kane County Recycles ] .

If you ca n’t get a retailer to take your tires , your local county or municipal government should be able to aid you out . Some have special tire tone arm day when you could leave your tires out by the curb , while others , like Montgomery County , Md. , outside Washington , D.C. , have waste stations that will accept tires forrecycling[source : Montgomery County , MD ] . You usually can get entropy on this by jibe your local government World Wide Web site .

If you ’ve pile up a crew of old tires on your property over the years , we bet your neighbor would love for you to contact a tyre recycling society and have them haul all that wasted rubber away . For example , in New Jersey the Scrap Tire Recycling Co ’s Web site say it will pick up any size of it payload of motorcar tyre . ( They ’ll collect airplane tires , too , if you have any of those . ) The caller then markets the chip tires to other firms that repurpose the rubber into various product [ beginning : Recyclemytires.com ] .

Whether you rick in your old tire at a recycling center or leave them with a tyre retailer , they ’ll probably end up at a commercial reprocess plant . There , the fighting tires will be cover with chemicals to break them down into a textile that can be reused . Some plant use a cognitive process called devulcanization , which break down and removes the sulfur that originally was added to the rubber eraser to make it temper . The issue is a stuff called reclaim rubber , which is cheap than pure rubber , although it sometimes lacks the tensile posture . The reclaim rubber is then put through a mechanical submarine sandwich . Sometimes it ’s first block by exposing it to liquid nitrogen , which makes the reclaim rubber brittle so it can be more easily mash into a fine powder [ source : Klingensmith ] .

Tire Recycling Projects

While old tyre may seem like worthless junk , they can be put to innumerable uses . According to the Environmental Protection Agency , there are at least 110 ware that are presently made of textile derived from used tire .

One purpose for sometime tyre is to put them back on the road – as part of the route . About 12 million rubbish tires a twelvemonth are made into rubberized asphalt , which is used to resurface federal interstates and highways in many state . survey show that it has a lower life - cycle cost than ceremonious pavement . In northerly Virginia , route constructor also have combined shredded tire gumshoe with cementum to take form “ voicelessness walls ” that turn away sound waves from traffic and reduce the noise level , spare local occupier ’ ear [ source : EPA ] .

Another DoT - related use for old tires is highly - durable , gum elastic - case railroad track necktie . Each tie include about 80 pound of ground - up scrap tyre and plastic from cast out feeding bottle , held together with a special binder or glue around a sword beam . The resulting product is about twice as hard as a wooden tie , and will last as long as 90 year , about three metre what a wooden tie beam would last [ source : EPA ] .

recycle tires are also used to make eco - friendly , low sustainment decks for homes . earth - up tire condom is combined with polyethylene resins to make molded panel that can hold up uttermost heat and dusty , sun and insect damage better than raw wood . synthetic rubber composite deck of cards last about 25 years and require little maintenance , except for an occasional hosing [ source : Luxury Housing Trends ] .

Another more and more popular use for recycled tire rubber eraser is for running cart track , basketball game court and outdoor playground surfaces . These surfaces not only are durable but they ’re cushioned enough to keep children from spite themselves when they devolve . At West Lake Park in Hollywood , Fla. , kids spiel in a reproduction pirate ship that sits atop a simulated lagoon , sodding with swimming manatees and sea turtles , fabricated from 8,000 fight tires [ source : Broward County , FL ] .

Sources

Recycle Tires FAQ