New Tire Life Cycle Proposed

Penn State University has received a grant for a demonstration project to turn automobile tires into road-building materials. They plan to bale tires from the Starr Tire Pile into blocks a few feet long on a side, then use the blocks to improve dirt roads that contribute to sediment pollution via runoff. Drainage structures can be built-in to the assemblage.

This is a pretty neat idea, in that tires that begin their usefulness in travelling over roadways may now have continued utility in being the roadways. The press release also notes that when the tires are used in this way, they also are unavailable as mosquito breeding grounds. I wish the Penn State researchers good luck with this demonstration project. I hope it works out and can be applied more generally.