Recycling Car and Truck Tires for Building Materials Company gives tires a new life when the rubber leaves the road.

Hundreds of millions of old tires are generated every year, and many of them are simply shredded to be used as fuel, crumb rubber, or used as cover in landfills. But what if they could be given another, more useful, life?

Re-Tread Products, of Great Valley, NY, has a plan and a product for these retirees of the road: tire logs. The company uses a commercial sidewall remover to slice off the sidewall of the tires, and then wraps the treads together to form a strong, flexible, and durable tire log. The tire logs can be used for a number of innovative purposes, from building earthquake-resistant structures to erosion control and noise barriers. 

The procedure for making Tire Logs is low-tech and low-energy, and uses existing equipment for the manufacturing process. After the sidewalls are removed, the tire strips are wrapped under tension around a core of strips with a winding machine (on a steel mandrel which is removed later) and then riveted together. The logs can then be cut to size with a bandsaw and prepared for transport.

The finished Tire Logs can then be easily stored and transported, taking up much less space than when in tire form. Possible uses for the Tire Logs include sea walls, replacements for sandbags, retaining walls, and noise reduction barriers along roads. As a building material, strength testing confirmed that:

“The inherent characteristics of this unique building material make it capable of withstanding deformations that would crack or break conventional building materials. Furthermore, the testing of individual units demonstrates that after test loads are released the product is capable of returning to its original shape. Due to this “bend but does not break” characteristic of the tire log it may be well suited for building applications that are prone to severe and unusual stresses/shock forces such as explosions, earthquakes, wave action, water and ice pressures, flying debris and vehicle impacts.”

Tire Logs have a long expected lifespan, as the rubber does not decay easily, which means that they could replace much of the treated wood used in retaining walls, keeping some of those toxins from leaching into soil and water.

Another positive effect of processing waste tires this way is reduced energy use and fewer breeding grounds for insects. Tires are bulky to transport, and storing them in the traditional manner creates the perfect breeding habitat for insects like mosquitoes, due to the water that gets trapped inside them. But once the sidewalls are cut off and the tread strips are flattened, this is no longer an issue.

The company says that commercial sidewall removal machinery is affordable for tire retailers, and by processing them locally, twice as many waste tires can be stored and transported in the same amount of space. That alone could lead to big savings in fuel and pollution. Re-Tread Products is currently looking to further automate the process of manufacturing the Tire Logs in order to mass produce these innovative recycled building materials.

If you liked this article, follow me on Twitter or connect with me on Facebook.