Comments on: How To Recycle Tires In Your Garden

By: Sigma

Sigma — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:23:29 +0000

I’ve been farming and gardening in Oregon for the last two years, and I first heard of using tires as construction material, from earthship biotecture’s designs. Since then I have come upon some land that came with “free” tires (quite a few of them) and have had to design the system there around them.
I originally thought tires were the best free building material ever, and it occurred to me that more building materials would be delivered free to the site of my choosing than I would know what to do with, if I posted so much as a craigslist ad.
My first rule of design is, on site procurement of materials.
For instance, irrigation does not require expensive pipes if you own a trenching shovel. Don’t bring in any extra tires to a pristine site, but if what you have to work with is an urban landscape, go for it.

Tire crumbs are toxic if used as a road surface, but still not as toxic as asphalt.
If your alternatives are to process and render new coal tar or petroleum distillates for you project, tires are quite eco friendly.

As for leaching, since tires biodegrade so slowly, the toxins come in small quantities that are manageable. As with most cases, bacteria and fungus will come to your rescue here. Methods for employing this are described in more detail by Paul Stamets, and other mycologists; there’s a mushroom for every toxin, it seems.

By: Thanos

Thanos — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:20:25 +0000

Hi,

Here is an address with an interesting article on the subject (Think is the one Yew mentioned). Apparently tires do not leak off toxins when inclosed into other materials such as plaster. They do though leak when exposed to light, temperature, water and ph changes such as when used for pots, garden walls, ponds etc…

http://www.earthship.net/offgassing

Hope it helps
Cheers

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:30:55 +0000

Suppose u change the soil in them regularly,wouldn’t that solve the chemical problem?

By: Shane

Shane — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 12:21:05 +0000

Great article on an important topic. I’ve been using car tires for at least a year now for growing potatoes and now as compost bins / worm farms. They are a perfect habitat for compost worms, are potable, and cost free. http://groundtoground.org/2011/04/10/potatoes-in-tires/

By: Yew

Yew — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:25:12 +0000

A technical statement on the tire chemistry, gassing, and leaching is in the
Biotecture site for Earthships. A university did a study on tire and environment
observations and this report is at the Earthship site.

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