We have a barn full of old tires that we "inherited" when we purchased our property. We have called around to tire recycling centers, but they want so much per tire. Does anyone know how we can dispose of them safely and economically?
Answers:
A friend of mine brought hers to Costco and they took them at no charge.
By Denyse
They make great containers for container gardening flowers and veggies. Also line the inside and make a great birdbath or bird feeder. Use them as edging around trees. If they are truck or car tires, try putting an ad in the paper. Many people (myself included) would love to have a few of those huge things for planters.
Erin - Toledo, Ohio
If you lived near me, I'd have you bring me a bunch of those old tires! They make great potato towers! Stack up two or three, fill with layers of straw, compost, soil, newspaper, etc, and plant you potatoes there. At harvest time, you just pull down the tires, and there are your potatoes, no backbreaking digging. Then, mix the composted material into your regular bed. (I'm working toward having mounded beds, rich in humus.)
The towers also make convenient places to sit in the garden, and let your back unkink after hoeing or hand-weeding. It is so nice to relax and enjoy looking at the fruit of your labors! I plant some flowers right next to the potato towers. (I choose marigolds, which are known to deter many garden pests. When I am resting, the marigolds are far enough below my nose that I don't get overwhelmed by the smell.)
If you put the towers at the corners of small beds, you can use them to support a fence. Just wrap the fence material around and use a stick or something to hold the overlap closed. You open the gate when you want in, and close it to keep out rabbits, dogs, small children, etc.
Rose B, in North Carolina
I was in Curacao several years ago and they made beautiful hanging planters for the patio or deck out of old tires. They cut them and then painted them to look like a parrot. They were great. I wanted one so badly, but due to the weight of the tire they were quite heavy to hand carry on airplane trip home and I didn't have a container to put in so I could ship. If she could get the pattern and make them I would be the first to buy one.
Here'a a number for RecycleNet Help Line: (519) 767-2913. They may offer you some help with finding someone in your area who will recycle them.
Here's a link for making a Tire Planter:
I looked for uses for old tires and could find lots of articles about using them for repaving work but only the above link on crafts. If anyone else has some good uses, please send them in.
Susan from ThriftyFun
If you have a barn full of tires than my suggestion will not be practical for getting rid of most but it could get rid of at least one (if you have children or grands, that is)! Growing up, some of my fondest memories were of swinging on a tire swing!
You can hang it sideways or up right. All you need is a tree with a limb large enough to support the tire and the children's weight. Place a small board inside the rim where you would want it to hang from, drill through the tire AND the board. But a large eye hook type bolt and screw it through the tire and board (the boards purpose is to keep the bolt from pulling through. This should help you to understand what I'm trying to explain).
Then tie a long sturdy rope onto the end of the bolt. Throw the other end of the rope over the limb and secure it. Or just tie a rope completely around the tire and then tie the other end around the limb. Bound to provide hours of enjoyment!
Other ideas could be to bury several of the tires just a little and making a "tunnel" for kids to crawl through. We have a park around here that even has picnic tables made with the big tractor tires!
If there are any good ones, I would suggest yard-saling them, cheap. This would be tires that have some tread on them and no holes or cords hanging out etc. If you live in a rural area, farmers or ranchers might take some of them off your hands for tires for wagons, hay sleds, etc. that they use around the place. This would be those that had some goody in them, of course.
Another thing ranchers in our area use them for is salt-box tires. They cut the bead off one side and then turn the tire inside out. This is then nailed to a board to close the other side, and then they are used out in the pastures for salt or mineral for the cattle.
By mcnare
My wife and I bought our dilapidated house full of junk and there were over 20 tires around the property. Well, we painted them red, white and blue. Screwed them together and made an obstacle course for my sons to run through
By Dave
A lot of companies have permission from the EPA to shred old tires to use for playgrounds. The soft spongy rubber is better on little knees than gravel. I would call around and see if anyone would come get them!
By Sarah
You might try calling High School football coaches. They use old tires as an obstacle course for practice.
By Cathy
My parents owned a used tire shop and have now passed it to me and my husband. It's been in business for 20 years. If you know of a used tire shop in your area some are willing to give you a certain price for decent threaded used tires. We give $5.00 a tire for good 14' sized tires. I recommend looking in your phone book for a used tire shop. There are also waste companies that except used tires for free.
By Kim
You can put ads for free in: www.Craigslist.org or www.oodle.com picks up some local papers. You can build HOUSES with tires. Yes, you can. I think the link is something like Earthship.com.
By Carrie
You can use them on go-carts tracks. They use old tires for bumpers to keep the carts on the tracks. Also, being from a farm community, farmers use tires to hold huge plastic tarps on their silage. They love used ones for their hay wagons and/or machinery. There are so many ways to recycle old tires. If you have any of these options around you give them to the go-cart tracks or farmers or sell the tires to them for barely anything and you will get rid of your tire problem!
By Brandon
This may be kind of late, but I know as a former athlete that flipping the big huge tractor tires are a real good work out for explosiveness. So if you have tires like that to get rid of, I would talk to track and field or football coaches to see if they want any.
By Wallace
You can use them to grow your garden. Really! Using tires, like planting pots, allows you to get a jump start on Spring planting because it keeps the soil much warmer.
I have an entire garden plan of tires. Some cut into designer planters. Surround the "tire garden" with a small garden picket fencing to keep neighbors from seeing it. Just search the internet for "gardening in old tires" for numerous ideas and photos.
Here is an article on that topic that is already on ThriftyFun. Check it out!
Feel free to post additional ideas below.
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Call your Department of Conservation. Ours sometimes collects them at no charge to shred for use in the walkways and play areas in state parks. Also, check with nearby large city park departments and schools for the same reason.
These days places like DISCOUNT TIRES & Les Schwab Tires no longer charge for taking your used tires because recycling trucks come around & pick them up from them for free... They then chop them up & remove the metal then turn them into playground mulch, garden mulch & use them when making asphalt to make highways last longer, etc...
---> Call a place that sells Tires & ask them who picks up their used tires. I bet they'll drive to your home & pick them up at no cost!
I have 200 tires at my house can you please come and get them
Who would drive to take your tires for free gas is not cheep ins labor trucking
It's too bad you can't find a place or way to cut them up into chips because they sell those now in big bags to use on playgrounds so the kids are safer from falls and such. If you could chip them, you could sell them that way. The tiny bags they sell in stores are so high priced. I wonder if a wood chipper would cut them up well. Laying around like that causes misquitoes to grow and lay eggs too. Good Luck with trying to rid them safely.
Have you tried to take them to local tire stores, I'm not sure what they have in MI, but here in Washington state, Les Schwab's (a regional tire store) will actually pay you to take the tires.
How about advertising on craigs list that you have free tires for tire swings?
Have you thought of using them to make a rammed earth building, ie storage shed, play house, dog house or even a room addition?
if you know a local paintball team suggest using them for bunkers, my team has been going around asking for them for our speed ball course.
I want like four of them but I have no idea where you live. From that picture the terrain leaves no clue. Otherwise I'm a pretty good guess. Yeah craigslist. I'm sure a few people want them.
I too live in Michigan and I'm looking for a bunch of old tires. If you still have any if you could let me take my pick before you get rid of them I would greatly appreciate it. Email me at kodered5150 AT charter.net
Stephanie, I know a farmer that would be interested in picking them up. Please, call me
734 660-6492
Thanks, Bruno
Hi My name is Miryam
I have the same problem in Atlanta GA, please let me know if you know some companies that takes them here, I was victim of a scam, I am without a job and since I had a 16ft box truck I advertise on CL offering services with the truck, well this guy got me running around different places collecting tires and before we get to the place where we where suppose to delivery he asked me to stop by a Burger King and he disappeared on me, an hour later after looking all over for him I realize I was scammed and left with my truck filled with more than 170 used tires, everybody I called said they charged for them to be disposed, I am desperate and do not know what to do, they are sitting in my garage for more than 4 months by now, please if you know any company that take them let me know.
Thanks in advance to all.
This one should work for all of them, if you live near a big city. Call tire shops to see who retreads tires, then take the tires to that shop. They may even pay you for each tire that is; not down to the cords; and that do not have big holes in them; and are not cut through.
Farmers use them to burn large piles of cleared trees and debris. They cut them in four segments and place them under the tree piles to burn. They poor kerosene into the concave tire segments which when lit will burn for several hours to start even the green trees burning.
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