Ernest Cordova is
“burning rubber” to come up with new ways to put old tires to use.
His family-owned business, Cordova and Sons of Cuba, N.M., collects
and recycles used tires to make bales for landscaping and building
projects.
Americans discard 270 million tires
each year, says the Department of Environmental Quality, a huge
burden for a nation trying to put the brakes on landfills. Cordova
diverts about 100 tires from the landfill with each bale he
manufactures, compacting the rubber into blocks convenient for
building. Using tires instead of rocks or concrete for projects
saves labor, time and money, he says; moreover, “tires are
beautiful and work great if you do it
right.”
Cordova also supplies tire bales to a new
generation of tire recyclers at the Colorado School of the Mines in
Colorado Springs. Engineering professor Bob Knecht says that his
students have incorporated tires in their design projects for five
years, and have built walls of tires that reduce highway noise five
times better than any product on the market. “They work very well,”
he says. “Hopefully, they’ll catch on.”
“It’s a
simple way to use something that’s a real pain,” says Stuart
Hoenig, a retired engineering professor and a tire recycling
advocate. “If the tires are just laying around, they get rainwater
and insects in them, and they’re a fire
hazard.”
You can contact Cordova and Sons at
800/806-6328 or visit www.tirestyres.com/a/rb8001.html to find a
tire recycler near you.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Saving tired tires.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
