OVERVIEW:
The beneficial reuse of waste tires in the form of tire bales in civil engineering applications has recently gained interest. Tire bales appear to a likely alternative in many of the applications where whole tires and tire shreds have been used. The use of tire bales appears to facilitate construction operations and tire bales are believed to reduce the potential fire hazards associated with tire shreds. Tire bales are fabricated and installed as large blocks and generally do not require the spreading and compaction efforts required for tire shred and geotechnical materials. The potential for an exothermic heating causing a fire hazard in tire bales is reduced because steel belts and reinforcement of whole tires have very limited exposure to oxidation in the final product and the smaller sizes of tire shreds are not present in the tire bale. The absence of large quantities of exposed steel also implies that tire bales can be stored with less concern for moisture content and weather exposure, which causes corrosion of the exposed steel in a tire shred product.
Because the practice of embankment construction with tire bales is not well established, the current design approach and details are still somewhat “experimental”. The “experimental uses” of tire bales to date constitute significant achievements and show promising potential for increase their use as described later in this report.
| Physical Properties (1) | Typical Values (1) | Range (1) |
| Number of Automobile Tires Number of Truck Tires | 100 20 (=100 pte) | 90 to 120 20 to 25 |
| Approximate Dimensions (vary with baler and operation) | 0.75 m x 1.4 m x 1.5 m (2.5 ft x 4.5 ft x 5 ft) | ½ bale, ¾ bale and full bale |
| Approximate Volume | 1.5 m3 (2 yd3 ) | 0.75 to 1.5 m3 (1 to 2.1 yd3) |
| Approximate Weight | 8.9 kN (2000 lb) | 4.5 to 13.3 kN (1000 to 3000 lb) |
| Approximate Unit Weight | 5.5 kN/m3 (35 pcf) | 4.5 to 13.3 kN (1000 to 3000 lb) |
CASE STUDIES:
