Texas Landfill Uses Old Tires
September 7, 2009 
12 Comments
Out for a walk the other day, I noticed a couple of old automobile tires leaning against the trash bins at a business. That got me to wondering, what do they do with all those tires? Apparently, discarded tires have long been considered a landfill pest. These tires are often under-recycled. They cannot be land-filled in their original form and are posing a problem for many states. Texas has an estimated 80 million recycled tires sitting in storage. Only 15 percent of the state’s discarded tires are recycled according to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation commission.
The North Texas municipal Water District, which provides regional water, waste-water and solid waste services to cities north and east of Dallas, turned its attention toward this tire supply when it began renovating and recycling a 30-year-old, 140-acre landfill northeast of Dallas. They determined that using the old tires , processed into chips and used in leachate collection systems as an alternative to gravel or sand presented many benefits in the landfill construction.
Shredded waste tires
1. Recycled tires have larger pore spaces than gravel or sand and do not have fine minerals that restrict flow through the collection system and prevent complete removal of landfill liquids.
2. Ease of transportation. The light-weight tire chips are easier to transport and maneuver than gravel or sand. One cubic yard of tire chips weighs approximately 900 pounds; a cubic yard of gravel weighs more than 3,000 pounds.
3.Readily available supply. To construct the first eight-acre section of the landfill, NTMWD used 1.2 million tires, or almost 11,000 tons. Over the next decade, 10 more sectors will be constructed. This project will help diminish Texas’ oversupply of used tires.
4. Cost-effectiveness. By using the tires, NTMWD saved approximately $400,000 in the first sector. The total cost of using tires on both the landfill bottom and side slopes was $812,765. In contrast, using gravel on the bottom and sand on the side slopes would have cost $1,256,025; gravel on the bottom and tires on the landfill’s side slopes would have cost $1,103,725; and sand on both the bottom and side slopes would have cost $1,138,060.
“This landfill now offers several protective barriers to separate the solid waste from the environment,” said the late Carl Riehn, NTMWD executive director. “We’re not only using recycled products to construct the landfill, but we’re also recycling the landfill itself.”
The NTMWD landfill reportedly is the first in Texas to use this type of leachate collection system. Across the state, other landfill operators are following the district’s lead and applying for permits for similar systems.
This is just one of the things that Texas along with other states are doing to recycle and reuse those old tires.
Image by Mykl Roventine
Note: The original source for this article comes from a very informative article by Sep 1, 1995 12:00 PM, David H. Canup published on WasteAge.com
That’s interesting and makes me think of how many other common items need our attention.
I didn’t know such a small percentage of tires are recycled! The use in landfills is interesting. I’ve seen a few cool things made from tires, like these sidewalks: http://www.rubbersidewalks.com/.
Hi Kirsten, WOW… those rubber sidewalks are a great idea! Such an inventive re-use of used materials. Many thanks for the link.
If your articles are always this hpelufl, I’ll be back.
I had no idea so few tires get recycled! Really awesome to here someone making an effort to take care of this problem. On a lighter side CalFinder just did an article on recycling old windows: http://www.calfinder.com/blog/windows/7-outrageous-ways-to-reuse-broken-windows/
Hi Arron,
Thanks for reading, we love the article about the 7 ways to reuse old windows… Our house is full of old stained glass windows and they provide a really cool natural light show at dawn and dusk!
We hope you enjoy reading some of our other articles
Glad you liked the article! If you want you could post a little write up on your blog about it so more of your readers see it! (wink, wink) Also if you ever have a blog you think CalFinder’s readers would like send it to me at the email address I used here! We get a ton of traffic and a ton of that traffic is all about the green space.
Is this an old article from the 1980′s or did you get the name of the executive director wrong? Mr. Carl W. Riehn served the District as Executive Director for 28 years prior to his retirement and untimely death in 1990 (twenty years ago) (Source NTMWD). Can you please put a dateline on your articles? Thank you.
Thank you for the comment, we did not realize how old some of the information was, we have now cited the main source of the information at the bottom of the article and noted that some of the quotes are from the late Car W. Riehn.
Jim Parks is now the Executive Director of the NTMWD.
p.s. loving your blog. (sorry if my post above sounded rude, I was just surprised to see a ghost?).
Lol, not a problem at all, we love constructive comments and yours helped us weed out some old information. We’re glad you like the blog and hope you stick with us