94-mile stretch of tires headed for recyclers

By Dave Harris, Public Affairs, Louisiana Recovery Field Office

In the aftermath of Katrina and Rita, a quarter-million discarded tires—enough to stretch from New Orleans to Hattiesburg, Miss.— tires popping up by ones and twos are hitching a ride to state-certified recyclers, compliments of the Army Corps of Engineers.

“They’re like rabbits—they keep multiplying,” said supply and services contract team member Jon Tudor of the Corps’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office.

Whether or not tires take on the reproductive traits of rabbits, they become health hazards by providing inviting habitat to creature pests and posing a fire danger, two reasons the Corps keeps hunting down the elusive discarded tires.

Tudor discussed the waste tire collection challenges experienced by the 8(a) contractor who works under a Small Business Administration program that assists eligible small and disadvantaged businesses to compete in the American economy through business development.

The contractor is scouring parishes street by street and discovering one or two abandoned tires at a time—and sometimes none—followed by subsequent stray tire hunts, and repeated counts, validations, verifications and documentation by the contractor, state-approved recycler and quality assurance field people, Tudor said.

The contract is valued at $2.9 million and runs through March 2007. The collections are based on the documented and confirmed number of tires picked up and recycled throughout seven parishes.

“If we agree with the number, that’s what we’re willing to pay,” Tudor said.

Tudor pointed out that tires cannot be intermingled with other debris collections and must be separated out and segregated from other recycling processes.

Previous to the Oct. 1 contract, collections didn’t include tires still attached to axles. The current contract specifies collection of axles as well.

Fifty years ago disposal consisted of collecting huge piles of tires and igniting the fast-burning rubber, sending billows of acrid, black smoke into the air and choking any rubbernecks who dared to get close enough for a front-row seat.

Not today. Whether strewn by ones and twos or piled sky-high at staging areas, now technology has found better uses for old tires, and the Corps of Engineers, authorized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, makes sure the tire collection program funnels tires to a specified list of recyclers approved by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and scientists nationwide think of ways to use them.

Greening the Highways, a publication of the Massachusetts Highway Department describes “the many construction applications of shredded tires.”

It points out the commonplace use of tire shreds—tires cut into 2 to 12-inch pieces—in highway and roadway construction as lightweight fill, backfill, conventional fill, and for insulation and drainage applications.

“As lightweight fill, tire shreds can help to correct for slope stability or landslide problems and minimize settlement caused by the weight of an embankment,” the publication says. “As backfill behind a retaining wall or bridge abutment, tire shreds help to reduce wall pressure and settlement…. They are lightweight, free draining, durable, compressible, have low earth pressures and are good thermal insulators. Depending upon the project location, they may also be the least expensive solution.”

A special report, “Scrap and Shredded Tire Fires,” released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Fire Administration warns of the dangers and problems caused by stockpiling scrap tires and suggests uses to diminish the hazards:

“Whole scrap tires are used for breakwaters to reduce shoreline erosion by waves. Artificial reefs made of tires can create habitats for fish,” the report says.  “Highway crash barriers can be constructed from whole tires.”

It goes on to describe uses of shredded rubber: “Crumb rubber is made by finely shredding tires with the steel cords removed, it says. “Tires shredded into crumb rubber can be used in asphalt paving for road surfaces. Rubber crumb can also be formed into gymnasium floor mats, used to cover playgrounds and athletic fields, mixed with dirt as a playing surface, or used for running tracks…. Finely ground scrap-tire rubber can be used for sound insulation pads and truck and trailer cargo-compartment liners.”

Although the publication reports use of about 85 million tires annually used for fuel, it says emissions create a challenge roughly equivalent to that of coal.

While the Corps doesn’t determine end uses of the tires, Tudor said, directing the tires to certified recyclers helps ensure environmentally friendly re-use of what once were eyesore castoffs.