Where Rubber Hits the Road

Meddybemps, Maine

In late summer of 1998 the State of Maine began the process of removing all tires from a large tire dump in downeast Maine. Nearly 300,000 tires were processed into tire shreds for use as sub-base road fill on Route #9 in Wesley. Another 900,000 tires were processed into tire shreds for use as drainage material in landfills. The remaining 500,000 tires will be processed into boiler fuel or beneficially re-used in the near future.

Nearly 1,700,000 tires are in piles surrounded by snow-covered woods roads in Meddybemps, Maine.

 

 

 

300,000 tires were chipped into 3,000 tons of Type B modified tire chips. The work was done by Arthur Schofield, Inc. of Fairfield, Maine and J.P. Ruthier & Sons, Inc. of Littleton, Mass.

 

 

 

 

 

The 3,000 tons of Type "B" chipped tires were used by DOT  as sub-base road fill in a reconstruction project on Route #9 in Wesley, Maine.

 

 

BENEFITS:

• The use of tire rubber (when processed and applied correctly) meets and often exceeds geotechnical specifications needed for road construction/drainage projects.
• The use of tire rubber shreds will not adversely contaminate ground or surface waters; and
• The use of tire chips generated from large tire dumps in road projects will eliminate serious environmental hazards.

For more information, contact William Butler of the Solid Waste Division at 207-287-7702 or e-mail at William.W.Butler@maine.gov

 

 

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