Tire disposal

[BrotherJim]

I operate a recycling facility for the county where I live.  We take auto and light truck tires (and smaller) for $1 each for residents of the county.  They are shredded to different specifications depending on the end user.  In some states, if your trash is going to the landfill, you can quarter a tire (cut into four pieces) and place in your trash.  That's a little easier said than done, depending on your equipment.  If your trash is going to an incinerator, you can place the tire with your regular trash.  Check local listings!

[Lannis]

Interesting story. Seems an enterprising person had a business where by he would pick up used tires from all the local shops for $1 a tire. He was renting a house, and filled the entire house, basement to attic with 40,000 tires. Made $40K and split, leaving the mess for the landlord.

That story has (to me) less to do with tires and more to do with why I would NEVER EVER own rental property!

Lannis

[nbags]

dispose properly pay the couple bucks to make sure they wind up where they should, oil same there is auto parts stores that will recycle oil for free.

[Lannis]

dispose properly pay the couple bucks to make sure they wind up where they should, oil same there is auto parts stores that will recycle oil for free.

I hate to think about how much oil we poured down old groundhog holes back in the day before we realized that wasn't a good thing ....

Tractors, cars, motorcycles, equipment ... I carry probably 10 gallons of oil every couple months to the local Advance Auto store, dump it in their recycle tank, and sign the sheet ....

Lannis

[Rusnak_322]

There's an Australian company called Green Distillation Technologies who  have developed a process involving distillation processing old tyres to recover oil, carbon and steel.
As an aside I wonder how many tons of rubber worn off as vehicles traverse the roads are washed into creeks etc - quite a lot I imagine.

Glenn

If the government would subsidize this, it could take a problem waste and convert it into a clean energy which would help reduce polution. same thing with unrecyclable plastics. But we can't because that is socialism. So the government pays farmers to grow corn to turn into ethanol to add to gas that no one wants (and have to remove by shaking in a  glass jar of water). But somehow that is OK?

[rocker59]

Didn't they build earth houses with old tires?

Yes.  I remember hearing a lot about it in the '70s and '80s the "tamped earth" / "rammed earth" crowd was using tires to build houses.  I guess some of the "earthship" crowd in Northern New Mexico use tires:




 

[Lannis]

If the government would subsidize this, it could take a problem waste and convert it into a clean energy which would help reduce polution. same thing with unrecyclable plastics. But we can't because that is socialism. So the government pays farmers to grow corn to turn into ethanol to add to gas that no one wants (and have to remove by shaking in a  glass jar of water). But somehow that is OK?

No, it's very far from OK, but there's so much money in it that we pretend it's OK....

Hence all the ethanol threads....

Lannis

[Brand X]

  In some states, if your trash is going to the landfill, you can quarter a tire (cut into four pieces) and place in your trash.  That's a little easier said than done, depending on your equipment.

Metal Munchers work great,generally the notcher part..

 

[Turin]

I've taken a tour of the earth ship homes, the last time I was in Taos. It's absolutely a thing of genius how these things are designed.

[Lannis]

I've taken a tour of the earth ship homes, the last time I was in Taos. It's absolutely a thing of genius how these things are designed.

I saw some of those when we rode through Taos last fall.

They sure do look like hell.   Where does the design genius part show up in livability, heat/cool efficiency, longevity, or whatever the reasoning is behind them?

Lannis

[rocker59]

I saw some of those when we rode through Taos last fall.

They sure do look like hell.   Where does the design genius part show up in livability, heat/cool efficiency, longevity, or whatever the reasoning is behind them?

Lannis

Yep.  Most of them are free form works of "art".  Architectural nightmares.  The genius comes in the way they're heated and cooled.

The reasoning behind them is recycling/re-purposing materials.  Using natural materials.  Using Passive Solar heating.

They work well in their high-desert climate with low humidity and large (30-40 degree) temperature swings during the day, and the summer temps that are usually no higher than low 80s.

I've seen, and stayed in, a few houses that use some of the same principles, but have a more traditional look.  I like them better.

On this house pictured below, at 8,000 feet just west of Taos, the left wall faces south, so can be used for solar heat gain.  There is no air conditioning.  There is a small wood stove, but it's only needed on the coldest days.  Even when sitting empty in January, inside temperature doesn't drop below 40-degrees.  The right wall, which faces north is 4-5 feet below grade.  Construction is adobe bricks above grade.  Cast concrete below grade.  Concrete floor.  Really thick insulated ceiling/flat roof under the pitched tin roof.

[Bob Wegman]

Maybe a good recapping process would work.

[bacongrease]

Easy....around here , in a  big employee parking lot,  those with pickup trucks,  they go out after work and find someone gifted a  tire,  old TV, or a nasty  recliner, etc in the bed.
Ditto big box stores lot.

They seem to cover their plate and know where cameras are.   

[Lannis]

Yep.  Most of them are free form works of "art".  Architectural nightmares.  The genius comes in the way they're heated and cooled.

The reasoning behind them is recycling/re-purposing materials.  Using natural materials.  Using Passive Solar heating.

When Fay and I were touring around San Diego a few years back, we were in a couple of very nice adobe-built traditional Southwest courtyard homes.   The rooms, some of which were connected together inside and some only by the front door under a porch, opening to the courtyard, were very cool during the day and warm at night, as the days heat soaked through the VERY thick adobe walls.

Adobe is as natural a building material as you can find, and the heating/cooling principles have been known and used for hundreds of years.  Unless you just want to be known as eccentric and tragically hip, I don't see why one of those wouldn't be nicer, as natural, as cool, and as easy to build as one of these things made out of tires and bottles and Van Camp's bean cans .... ?

But that's just me.

Lannis

[Texas Turnip]

The west had many towns where the locals had houses made of adobe that you could heat and cool for little cost. Then the government decided to "help" these folks by giving them Jim Walters prefab houses that are next to heat or cool.

IMHO tire disposal. should be free. That would keep loads of tires from being tossed on empty lots and ditches.

Tex

[rocker59]

When Fay and I were touring around San Diego a few years back, we were in a couple of very nice adobe-built traditional Southwest courtyard homes.   The rooms, some of which were connected together inside and some only by the front door under a porch, opening to the courtyard, were very cool during the day and warm at night, as the days heat soaked through the VERY thick adobe walls.

Adobe is as natural a building material as you can find, and the heating/cooling principles have been known and used for hundreds of years.  Unless you just want to be known as eccentric and tragically hip, I don't see why one of those wouldn't be nicer, as natural, as cool, and as easy to build as one of these things made out of tires and bottles and Van Camp's bean cans .... ?

But that's just me.

Lannis

I agree.  I like the idea of the "earthship", but the executions are mostly horrible. There's no reason they can't give them normal/traditional facades.  Clean lines and good symetry.  They just don't want to.  Have to remain dyphrent. 

[Knuckle Dragger]

I stack em up progressively & grow spuds (in compost & straw) in mine, the stack growing progressively, along with the plant, over spring/summer.  I've had a 50kg crop of Brownells & Tasmans from a single plant!  Less for Kipflers.  Keeping both plant & swelling tubers off the ground partially insulates a crop of new Bismarks, meaning that I have on occasion had an excellent but small harvest of tender new spuds even in midwinter.

Old tyres are also the basic building blocks for Earthship builders too.  As this construction technique becomes more & more popular, this in addition to the 'soft-fall' playground materials processing and other recycling techniques means that there should realistically be little to no need for diversion to landfill any more, at least in wealthier western economies.  I respectfully suggest that if you continue to irresponsibly dump this hazardous material inappropriately then perhaps you should reconsider your actions.

[Lannis]

  As this construction technique becomes more & more popular, this in addition to the 'soft-fall' playground materials processing and other recycling techniques means that there should realistically be little to no need for diversion to landfill any more, at least in wealthier western economies. 

I'm all for not taking the tires to the landfill, and in "principle" we should be able to use them for something, but (speaking realistically) I know of no one who will take my old tires and grow spuds or build houses with them.   If there was such a person, he'd be welcome to them ....

Lannis

[Turin]

The earthships use Adobe techniques combined with modern materials ( tires and bottles etc) The tires are packed with earth and stacked.