News, Environment, Santa Monica

City Of Santa Monica Finds Afterlife For Tires

Courtesy Photo

Curb ramps have been created for use in Santa Monica from recycled tires.

Posted Mar. 24, 2013, 9:05 am

Mitch James / Mirror Contributor

The City of Santa Monica’s Resource Recovery & Recycling Division (RRR) has discovered an afterlife for tires.

By recycling tires into crumb rubber, RRR has created a few innovative products for everyday use. 

These products include rubber bumpers, curb ramps, and a boardwalk to the sea.

Thanks to a grant from California’s Resource Recycling and Recovery Department (CalRecycle) Tire Derived Product grant program, over five thousand tires were diverted from landfills, incineration and illegal dumping. 

Rubber Bumpers for Enclosures

Rubber bumpers are currently installed in trash enclosures to alleviate damages to walls and doors when pushing and pulling trash, recycling and food waste bins to the trucks for collection. 

Approximately, 2500 passenger tire equivalents were reused for this purpose and not sent to the landfill. 

Curb Ramps              

Four hundred and forty passenger tire equivalents were diverted from landfills and recycled into curb ramps. 

These rubber ramps are stored in the collection vehicles and are designed to fit snugly in the curb gutters.

City staff pushing and pulling recycling trash and food waste bins can easily maneuver the very heavy dumpsters off of the curbs to the collection trucks. 

As a result, injuries to employees have lessened when using this tire derived product. 

Boardwalk to the Sea

The boardwalk to the Sea has been installed on the beach north of the Santa Monica Pier. 

As an extension to the existing wooden boardwalk, 298 rubberized planks offer individuals with disabilities (ADA) access to the sea at high tide.