Getting Rid of Old Tires
Answers:
By Denyse
Erin - Toledo, Ohio
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
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
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!
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
By Dave
By Sarah
By Cathy
By Kim
By Carrie
By Brandon
By Wallace
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.
Feel free to post additional ideas below.
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!
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.
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
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have a friend that does scrap cars, and he has no way of getting rid of old tires. He wants them hauled off. What does he need to do? Thanks.
Steve J.
Try posting notices on public bulletin boards (like grocery stores) and notifying plant nurseries that they are available free of charge to gardeners. We use them 4 high for potatoes and I am planting carrots and radishes in them this weekend. They are great season extenders because the earth in them gets warm early spring and stays warm well into winter here. They are great for herbs - I can harvest all but the most tender ones year round from the tire beds. I have some that have been disquised and some that are obviously tires - but they are the best raised beds ever!
Sign up for freecycle AT yahoo.com. Then post the ad for free tires. Someone in the area will want them for free and come and pick them up.
See if his town recycles old tires. Beware they may charge a fee for each tire. I know for my town I had to go to the Town Hall and purchase a permit for about $5 per tire then the recycling company came and picked up the tire.
Give them to persons wanting a container garden above ground. My girl friend does this with hers. Her husband is a mechanic on their property and gets a lot of old tires for her. She fills the tire up with top soil then puts a 5lb bag of good soil that she is using to plant the plant in on top of that. No weeds, no animal damage (rabbits), no slugs because they can not get up to where the plants are. Their garden was so productive this summer that they kept 3 or 4 families supplied with fresh vegetables! Now all of us want to try our hand with the old used tires in our yard next year.
They also take used motor oil to stain their deck and out door buildings with. Again the wood looks really neat this way and no bugs (termites) will eat into it. It is the greatest looking stain color I have ever seen and now I want it!
Good luck.
I'd start with City Hall. If the city doesn't recycle them, they should know who does.
They do indeed make great planters, though I would certainly consider washing them carefully for motor oil if you let them near food plants. Sturdy, uncracked tires do make cool swings.
I have seen tires used a lot on lakes, people often cut them to make bumpers, which can hep prevent scratches and damage to dock and boat intact. I would also consider selling them for $5-10 each (garage sale, craigslist, local paper).
If you can't get good use out of them, I would google for your local shedder/recycler, they are often shredded into rubber mulch, or made into other things.
I have a neighbor who works on cars as a hobby/or for friends/family. Our MUA allows each resident to put up to four tires out on particular dates (no fee) - a few neighbors (& us) lets him put them in front of our house too when it's time. It may even be with the regular trash ( I don't really notice it until the tires appear every few months!), but they do limit the quantity per house.
Unless you line old tires with something, like landscape cloth, you NEVER should grow edibles in tires. The rubber the tires are made of, leach all sorts of bad chemicals into the soil in and around the tires. Your veggie plants absorb those bad chemicals while growing, and then you eat the veggies AND the chemicals they absorbed. Old tires are better to be recycled into new blacktop or paving.
Where can I recycle about 500 used tires that were dumped on my property, at no cost to me? I am willing to travel up to 200 miles.
By chris from Kokomo, IN
I don't know if this website advertises free tire recycling. But if you contact them they might be able to give you names of other places that recycle for free. www.libertytire.com/
Do you belong to Freecycle? There is a great one in one in Howard Co. Joining is free. You never know what people are wanting and if they want your tires they might be willing to pick them up.
I would offer them on freecycle.org and also on craigslist. Probably won't get rid of all 500, but anything would help, i would think. Also, one of the stipulations for freecycle is that they understand that they need to pick up.
Good luck with that!
Also, I was just thinking, maybe some playgrounds or parks could use them to make some structure for the kids to play on. Or maybe the spca for the dogs....
Good luck with this project. Tires are terribly hard to get rid of, unless you happen to live near some place where they grind them up and make playground coverings, or know someone who is building an earthship home where the tires are filled with dirt, buried, and then form the wall of the home.
You didn't willingly let someone dump 500 tires on your property, did you?
Contact the parks and recreation sector of local gov't and offer the tires for playgrounds, dog parks, training at high schools. I would then post them on freecycle. Good luck. I am very curious as to where and how that many tires would be dumped on your property.
This is a page about tire disposal in Indiana. Finding a local disposal site in your state and learning the recycle rules applying to used tires is your first step in getting rid of them.
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I am trying to get rid of 19 old tires. Does anyone know where I can take them in Ohio?
