Tire Recycling

[lyle11]

I carefully mounted my turf tires and after 48 hours they are holding air. I was going to take them to a local place that said they would mount them for $20 each, but they wanted to mount them tubeless. Not sure if it would have been $20 each with the tube so I figured I would just do it myself and it was pretty easy using pointers I got from this forum. The sidewalls don’t seem near as stiff as the agricultural tires on my other Cubs which I suspect made it easier. Plus, my last coat of paint on the rims was only 9 days old and I was able to do them on a old rug and be careful not to ding them.

The only local place I found so far to recycle the old tires wants $25 per tire. According to the Ohio EPA, the fee to recycle a car tire is $1. So, $25 seems pretty steep but I’ll check to see if I have any other options. The place I priced to install them said their fee to recycle my old tractor tires was $8-$10 per tire and this was for them installing tires I did not buy from them. I might call them back and offer them $15 per tire to recycle them. Seems like easy profit for them if they were only gonna charge $10 per tire. I can see why people use the old tires for planters.

[Barnyard]

Our township has a cleanup day every year. They place dumpsters behind the fire house for free disposal. You are allowed to bring four tires a year per household. I always make use of that.

My only other option would have been a sawzall and cut them into eight pieces and put one piece in a black bag for trash pick up each week for eight weeks.

[fordhead1983]

I had a buddy that used to have a whole bunch of tires from when he was scrapping out running gears. He wrote B.A.D. on them. I asked him why the periods, he said "It means Burn After Dark"...

[Slim140]

Put them on Craigslist in the free section. Somebody may take them and use them for flowerbeds or something and you don’t have to deal with them.

[Eugene]

In Missouri, I think the recycling charge is $1.50 per tire.

I take a sawsall and cut the tire in half. Wrap the tire around a tree truck, add a bit of kerosene and some gasoline to start the fire. This will normally kill the tree. Following year, tree can be harvested for fire wood.

I have brush piles to burn. Throw a tire on too of the brush pile. Wait until dark and set the brush pile on fire.

[Barnyard]

Our Jeep club was burning several huge brush piles after one of our clean up days. One of the guys got the bright idea to toss a couple of old tires in the mix. It didn’t take long for the fire department to pull in. They let us off with a warning if we got the tires out of the fire. Considering it was a $500.00 fine we got them out pretty quick.

[Slim140]

When I was about 14 a bunch of us went snow sledding on the gas pipeline that runs through our town. One of the guys had an old 35” truck tire and brought 5 gallons of go juice to get it going. It got going and someone called on us. We heard the sirens and split. All except my brother. He plugged his red light in on the dash and told them he was the first on scene. My dad was a captain at the time in the department. The rest of us turned around and were headed out when the law came. They ask what we were doing and we told them we came to see what was going on.

[lyle11]

I have an old farmhouse in Wisconsin and an addition was added to the house in the 20s and the foundation sat right on the ground. The frost line is 42 inches deep so I’m surprised that part of the house lasted as long as it did, but we tore it down about 15 years ago and hauled the walls and bigger pieces to an area where we could burn it the next winter.

My neighbor was the fire marshal and he would always just say “I don’t want to even hear about it” If you ask about burning something like that because he knew the rules made it impossible to comply. You would have to remove every single speck of shingle and roofing felt, etc.

The rules stated that you didn’t need a burning permit if there was snow on the ground so I returned there the next January with the plan to burn it down. Had it positioned to put some dry kindling underneath it and in at no time it was up in flames. The house is on 80 acres with a road a quarter-mile to the north and a road 1/4 mile to the south and sure enough somebody saw the flames and stopped on the south road. I was just hoping and praying - please don’t call the fire department.

Couple minutes later the same truck was on the North Road and I made it a point to stand in a visible location away from the fire with my hands on my hips.He drove up the driveway and fortunately I was able to explain it was a planned burn.

Maybe I’ll put the tires on craigslist with the caption Rustic Country Flower Box. These sell for hundreds in Hollywood but you can own it today for just $25.

[Eugene]

One of the guys got the bright idea to toss a couple of old tires in the mix. It didn’t take long for the fire department to pull in.

One of my neighbors told pretty much the same story. He was trying to get rid of a bunch of old tires. The tire smoke attracted someone's attention.

After hearing my neighbor's story, I only burn one tire at a time and after dark.

Probably less expensive to just take the tire to the local tire dealer and pay the $1.50 recycling fee. Other side of the coin, once started on fire, tires make great kindling for brush piles.

[Matt Kirsch]

Yeah, tires tend to give off thick black smoke, and the authorities don't take kindly when they see it.

The whole thing about charging to recycle tires is bogus. Here in NY state they charge $5 per tire when you buy the tire for a "disposal fee." By all logic, any tire dealer should take any old tire for free, because the disposal fee has already been paid. Yet, nobody will take the tires without charging some exorbitant amount for disposal.

What really sucks is the tire dealers turn around and sell the tires to tire recyclers, who turn around and sell them to asphalt plants, which grind them up and mix them in with new pavement.

[lyle11]

That’s what bugs me about it. I read the same thing where a recycle fee is added to the price of every new tire you buy. I try to play by the rules but they make it so hard. They should provide some kind of recycle certificate when you buy a new tire that allows you to take it to a recycle center free of charge since you already paid a fee. I am all for recycling, but there is always something they won’t take. I remember a Q-Lube store that advertised free oil disposal. So I brought mine in in translucent milk jugs which gave it a greenish hue and the Q-Lube guy was adamant that I had antifreeze in the jugs.

[MiCarl]

Not sure where the idea that recycling fees are already paid or that recyclers buy the tires.

When the tire pile in my motorcycle shop gets too tall I have a recycler come for them. The recycler shreds them and sells the material to be used for whatever. It still costs me $2 for every motorcycle tire that goes on his truck.

Junk tires aren't like waste cooking oil, you don't have to lock them up to keep them from being stolen.

What I do object to is breaking out the recycling fee. It's away to advertise a low price then jack it up later (cell phone companies typically do the same thing). My recycling expenses are included in my prices just like my rent and utility bills. That doesn't make it free though.

[Landreo]

Not sure where the idea that recycling fees are already paid or that recyclers buy the tires.

When the tire pile in my motorcycle shop gets too tall I have a recycler come for them. The recycler shreds them and sells the material to be used for whatever. It still costs me $2 for every motorcycle tire that goes on his truck.

Junk tires aren't like waste cooking oil, you don't have to lock them up to keep them from being stolen.

What I do object to is breaking out the recycling fee. It's away to advertise a low price then jack it up later (cell phone companies typically do the same thing). My recycling expenses are included in my prices just like my rent and utility bills. That doesn't make it free though.

Thanks for the informed response!

Where I live the nearest tire recycle place is around 100 miles away. Someone has to store your used tire, not outside because of insects and standing water, someone has to load the tires on a truck and deliver to the recycle plant or pay the plant to pick up the tires. The plant has to grind up the tires safely and follow all state and federal regs for storage etc only to end up with a final product that is not worth much. The final product is going to be worth less than what it cost to produce. Without charging a fee the recycler would be losing money on each tire.

State fees are for cleanup of old tire dumps, random tires thrown on the side of the road, etc...

My county will take car and truck tires for free but not tractor tires. I only have had a few but some went into my pond for the snapping turtles to live in and some when for raised garden beds. Otherwise I will just pay a local tire dealer to take the old tire.

Don't burn the tires, they generate a lot of pollution for someone else to breath.

$10 to take and dispose of old tractor tires is a good price and even $25 seems reasonable.

[Jim Becker]

Not sure where the idea that recycling fees are already paid or that recyclers buy the tires.
. . .
What I do object to is breaking out the recycling fee. It's away to advertise a low price then jack it up later . . .

. . .
State fees are for cleanup of old tire dumps, random tires thrown on the side of the road, etc...
. . .
$10 to take and dispose of old tractor tires is a good price and even $25 seems reasonable.

Some of the state fees go to research on recycling/reuse of old tires, in addition to the uses Landreo already listed. Without that effort (and consequent uses for ground up tires), the disposal fees would probably be a lot closer to a $25 figure than $10.

The recycling fees are established and amounts set by individual states. Michigan has not established a fee for each new tire (as of the most recent lists I have seen). So a Michigan retailer should not be adding a recycling fee to each tire. (It would be a legitimate business decision if they choose to add a disposal fee.) Michigan has added a tire recycle fee to vehicle registrations. Here is a fee list by state.
https://www.tirebuyer.com/education/tire-disposal-fees-collected-by-tirebuyer

[lyle11]

One way or another I’ll recycle mine legally. Maybe $25 is a fair price but I’ll still look for a lower price before I pay it. If a car tire recycle fee is $1 it doesn’t seem like a tractor tire the size of a Cub tire should be $25. To encourage people to recycle them, maybe they should add a fee to the tires like a battery core charge that you get back when you bring the tires to a recycling place. With all the tractor tires sold on the Internet, you gotta believe a lot of the old tires are not getting recycled because people don’t want to pay the fee. I just find with recycling in general that it is frequently a hassle so people throw that 1/2 can of paint or old solvent in the trash. Since I cut the cord, I still have 2 of those Direct TV receivers I need to recycle. Seems like there should be a more convenient way but I don’t have any knowledge of the costs involved to convert a tire to rubber mulch or some other product.