Rotary Soul

ok so, i was in deep thought the other day, and i came to a disturbing realization. we all need to replace tires cuz the tread wears down... that's four tires per car times however many cars are on the road every 2 years or somethin like that... so where does all that rubber go? does it just sit on the road? i doubt too much of it gets into the air... so when it rains, does it just go into our water supply? there must literally be dozens of tons of rubber comin off cars every year, where the hell is all the rubber now?

efonwang

when other cars go over the spot the previous car has gone, doesnt the 2nd car pick up the rubber?? then leaves it somewhere farther for another car to pick up and move. im guessing its all still on the tires, just different tires. and theyre just piling the tires in a landfill. or use them as cushions for boats. or some kind of creative use for it.

just a guess, probably have to have someone that owns a tire shop tell u.

expo1

http://www.retread.org/QA/index.cfm?...&ID=11&nonav=1

-=Rowdy=-

The rubber breaks down into tiny molecules which when excited, heat up and slowly bounce off the earth's surface. When reaching extreme heights in the atmosphere, they eventually disintegrate.

went_postal

Oddly... All my old tires are still sitting in my garage. I have no idea why I keep them... I just do....

SilverStreak

Expo, cool link! There has been a lot of work looking at impact of highways on the environment. I work in environmental consulting and do a lot of work with state DOTs on environmental management. Recycling of tire casings is a big thing as well for the industry. Besides shredding and putting it into road paving, we have shredded tires to make lightweight fill for highway embankments and it is used as insulating material in plastic sound barriers. Any use of the old tires is better than leaving them sit in large tire piles that among other things turn into breeding grounds for mosquitos (west nile) and other health risks.

LuvMy8:)

at my daughters school instead of sand or gravel they have chopped up tires on the play ground. It's soft and I've seen it break a lot of falls but I could never help but wounder where it came from, and if it's harmful to the kids health. Not only do they bring it home in there shoes but if they play in it like sand they get all black I can't imagine thats healthy for them.

rx8wannahave

All black...lol, but not funny...poor little kids, we had to deal with being sandy they have to deal with having black rubber all over them.

BlueEyes

This was fairly close to my old house, I could see the smoke.

juikster

I saw that same fire while flying over My St.Helen.

juikster

I saw that same fire while flying over My St.Helen.