Scrap Tire Playgrounds Lighten Landfills, But Raise Cancer Fears

The fire burned for nine months, billowing toxic black smoke thousands of feet above its Appalachian valley source and across five states. It would take 20 years and $12 million to clean up the remains of the tire heap.
At the time of the 1983 Rhinehart, Virginia, tire fire, about 90 percent of America's discarded tires went to landfills. There, they would take up massive amounts of space, occasionally ignite, and collect water that created fertile breeding grounds for disease-transmitting mosquitoes. Today, in part because of actions sparked by the Virginia disaster and many smaller tire fires, more than 90 percent of the nation's approximately 230 million tires scrapped each year are put to use -- burned as fuel, incorporated into asphalt roads and, increasingly, shredded into components of products such as synthetic turf sports fields and children's playgrounds.
Industry leaders tout this as a win-win for businesses and the planet. But others say we've simply swapped one bad set of environmental health risks for another. And these critics highlight moves by industry and government to promote lucrative landfill diversions, such as ground-up tires -- so-called crumb rubber -- despite acknowledging hazards.

Meanwhile, the old tires keep coming.
In 2007, a committee of state, academic, industry and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives published action plans to "promote increased use of ground rubber made from scrap tires" in playgrounds, sports fields and colored mulch, among other products. The toxicity, volatility, leachability and flammability of the tire products were noted in the document, as was a need to "identify and mobilize champions" to "enhance market growth" in the face of these "barriers."
Nearly 60 million tires were ground up for reuse in 2013.
"How do you turn a hazardous material into something you can sell the public on? I would say they've done an ingenious job," said Nancy Alderman, president of the nonprofit Environment and Human Health Inc., who has advocated against the use of crumb rubber where children play.

Crumb rubber contains carcinogens, advocates warn. (Lynne Peeples)

"On the face of it, recycling material that is otherwise going to waste piles sounds good," said Linda Chalker-Scott, an associate professor of urban horticulture at Washington State University Extension. In fact, she is among proponents for the use of scrap tires in energy production and rubberized asphalt.
But as Chalker-Scott wrote in an academic fact sheet, set for publication soon, that grinding up old tires can put their toxic components -- including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals and carbon black -- in close contact with people, pets and the environment.
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