Tires in the desert

Old airplanes aren’t the only things that get stored in large numbers out in the huge deserts of the southern United States. So too do millions of used automobile tires.

A company called Envirotech collected them for ten years and stored them in part of the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The idea was to recycle them into fuel. Unfortunately for the company, the state of Arizona decided to shut them down for multiple fire code violations. These include obstructed fire roads and an on-site fire-protection water system that didn’t meet minimum requirements. Unfortunately for everyone else, if ignited, the piles could “burn unhindered for over ten years” according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

All told, about three billion used tires are stockpiled across the United States. All the more reason to hope that a microorganism eventually emerges that can metabolize vulcanized rubber.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. Between 2005 and 2007 I completed an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. I worked for five years for the Canadian federal government, including completing the Accelerated Economist Training Program, and then completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2023. View all posts by Milan