Every day, innovative and creative communities are coming up with ways to make use of pollution. The latest example? A new 2.5-mile-long walking and biking trail in a Tennessee state park that is made of old tires.
The trail, located at T.O. Fuller State Park in Memphis, is one of the longest trails made of recycled rubber in the U.S. It consists of rubber crumbs derived from tires that were illegally dumped around the state park. Volunteers and local contractors began collecting the tires for this project in 2019. Then, the tires were broken down into “crumbs” of rubber by Patriot Tire Recycling in Bristol, Tennessee.
“This is a quintessential example of recycling in a full circle, collecting dumped material then converting it into positive use,” David Salyers, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), said in a statement. “It’s exactly the kind of responsible environmental activity Tennesseans can be proud of, where an area can be cleaned up then have people enjoy the benefits in a new way.”
Workers and 450 registered volunteers collected over 24,000 tires of all types, including tires from passenger, commercial and heavy equipment vehicles. In just one day, more than 10,000 tires were collected. The new recycled rubber trail replaced worn paths from a former golf course, and the refreshed trail as well as new connections have created a loop around the park.
According to Joseph Galbato, III, interim commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), the department spends over $19 million per year to pick up litter and illegally dumped items. “We are thankful for collaborative partnerships like the ‘Tires to Trails’ project which not only addresses the litter problem but turns it into a meaningful and positive long-lasting resource for the community,” Galbato said.
Tennessee’s new state park trail is one of the longest made up of rubber tire crumbs, but many other states are looking at this material for walking and biking trails. Kentucky’s Department of Waste Management recently welcomed applications for projects that utilize rubber crumbs. In April, Alabama unveiled new roads and parking areas at Lake Guntersville State Park made up of recycled tires. A recycled rubber walking trail at Obregon Park in East Los Angeles, California was installed back in 2014 for locals to enjoy.
“We’re pleased to see discarded tires recycled to improve T.O. Fuller State Park,” Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said. “The new trail is a great example of collaboration with our federal, state and city partners to invest in our shared environment and a treasured community asset.”
More than 90% of plastic is never recycled, and a whopping 8 million metric tons of plastic waste are dumped into the oceans annually. At this rate, there will be more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans by 2050.
The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) is a collaboration between businesses, international donors, national and local governments, community groups and world-class experts seeking meaningful actions to beat plastic pollution.
In Ghana, for example, GPAP is working with technology giant SAP to create a group of more than 2,000 waste pickers and measuring the quantities and types of plastic that they collect. This data is then analysed alongside the prices that are paid throughout the value chain by buyers in Ghana and internationally.
It aims to show how businesses, communities and governments can redesign the global “take-make-dispose” economy as a circular one in which products and materials are redesigned, recovered and reused to reduce environmental impacts.
Read more in our impact story.
World Economic Forum Type may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
This article is published in collaboration with EcoWatch
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Privacy Policy & Terms of Service