6 Uses for Discarded Truck Tires 6 Uses for Discarded Truck Tires
Once truck tires have been worn and are no longer useable they don’t have to be wasted. Due to the size of them, truck tires are not desired at landfill sites due to their sheer size. They can also become dangerous, trapping methane gases which can ultimately cause them to damage the important landfill site liners which stop pollutants from seeping into the ground. Other uses for truck tires are always being sought. Here is a list of some of the other ways they can be recycled and put to good use.
Use 1 – House Foundations
Truck tires can make excellent house foundations if you are looking for a more environmentally friendly way of doing a self-build. You will have to apply for a permit from your Regional Building Department office and show them that you have fulfilled their requirements. However many counties are encouraging new and efficient ways of building. Tire foundations are most commonly used in straw bale buildings.
Using truck tires will alleviate the need for footers and concrete. They are also very cheap to buy, a fraction of the cost of putting in ordinary foundations.
Use 2 – Sports Court
Many counties request that you actively recycle truck and car tires for other purposes. One of these is to reduce the tires to crumb which is then used for making sports courts, in particular basketball courts. The crumb is also used to make the underlining for Astroturf.
Use 3 – Other Rubber Products
Tires are also melted down and used to make other rubber products, including new tires.
Use 4 – House Building
Tires are also used in another eco-friendly way of building a house. The truck tires are rammed full of earth and then covered in a layer of concrete. These sort of houses are known as Earthships. Because of the density of the materials you do not need to worry that they are not fire retardant either. These sort of houses, particularly popular in Mexico, are often ‘off the grid’ meaning that they have a limited reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels because they are naturally warm and require a specialized ventilation system.
Use 5 – Gardening
The rubber in truck tires makes them ideal insulators for using as plant beds. When the soil is well insulated, it will warm up much quicker, making an excellent gardening hotbed. This has great advantages of allowing you to grow crops later in the season and also harvest later into the fall. Raised tire plant beds are also better if you have difficulty bending down. You should remove the sidewall of the tire and fill it with good compost. This is perfect for growing vegetables such as spinach and lettuce.
Use 6 – Composting
For the same insulating and warming reasons, a small stack of truck tires will make an excellent compost bin. You can build the bin up a tire at a time as you fill it with compostable material. Again you should cut the sidewalls out of the tires so you are left with the rubber rings of the tread. The warmth will help your source material to turn to compost very quickly.