Photographer Edward Burtynsky has spent much of his career documenting mankind’s “manufactured landscapes,” from mines and quarries to massive engineering projects that are mind-boggling and dwarfing in scale. My favorite series of his looks at tire piles, a particularly ugly and toxic form of waste, largely because they can self-ignite into poisonous fires if stored improperly, which burn from the inside-out and can take years to extinguish.
This tire pile in Northern California burned after being struck by lightning in 1998, and so much oil was released as a result that it flowed into a nearby stream — and then that caught fire.
It took nearly ten years to clean up the mess. Back when these photos were taken, it was estimated to be the biggest tire pile in the western U.S.
69,000 tons of tires in just four acres of land, piled six stories deep in some places. The bottoms of those piles had been smashed completely flat.
These photos were taken back in the 90s. These days, massive tire piles are less common because states have taken measures to recycle more and more old tires, turning them into paving material and incinerating them (without releasing smoke) to create power. So scenes like this are a little harder to come by:
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No more Springfield tire fire? Bummer.
posted by Joel on 6-4-2010 at 8:57 am
They’re making stepping stones out of recycled tires now. Unfortunately, they’re $4 a pop.
posted by tinkerschnitzel on 6-4-2010 at 9:17 am
Someone’s staring at me from the lower middle of that first picture. Effective use of light or photoshop?
posted by gwdMaine on 6-4-2010 at 11:48 am
Very interesting pictures and story! I have a question, though. How do you incinerate something without releasing the smoke?
Turning tires into asphalt sounds like a brilliant idea. Even if recycling doesn’t save our planet, it sure is fun to think about.
posted by Katrina on 6-4-2010 at 11:52 am
I work for a company that manufacturers products made from recycled tires. While there are a few companies worldwide that are doing this, we are the one of the only ones that are useing American tires to help clean up the problem that the pictures show above, and not tires that are imported from overseas. As an American Manufacture it just make sense to clean up America first.
posted by Jamie Rex on 6-4-2010 at 12:03 pm
I’m not sure Katrina, but I believe that the temperature they incenerate the materials is so high, that the fuel has no chance of releasing any materials into the atmosphere.
posted by graham on 6-4-2010 at 12:30 pm
gwdMaine – I see it too! Very weird.
posted by Norma dePlume on 6-4-2010 at 1:29 pm
quote: “Someone’s staring at me from the lower middle of that first picture. Effective use of light or photoshop?”
its jobba the hut
posted by keith on 6-4-2010 at 1:34 pm
@gwdMaine:
I’d say that was fake, most definitely photoshopped in…Looks like a Native American staring back at us.
posted by TheBear on 6-4-2010 at 3:00 pm
We just bought “mulch” that was made out of recycled tires. They said it won’t fade, blow away, or need to be replaced for 10 years…looks just like the real thing. It was more expensive than traditional mulch, but if the hype is true, it will save more in the long run.
posted by slacken on 6-4-2010 at 3:17 pm
The documentary “Manufactured Landscapes” is amazing. Check it out.
posted by Shasta on 6-4-2010 at 4:02 pm
when the great tire recall happened. i thought they should have given them to 3rd world countries to use on oxcarts and donkeycarts instead of dumping them. would they make good fish habitats ? they couldnt burn underwater.
posted by dirk alan on 6-4-2010 at 8:02 pm
I was lucky enough to go to this place and shoot it back in the late 90′s.My brother and I just pulled up to the main gate and said we were students and wanted to do some shooting and the guy let us in.He did say we could only shoot from our car,but we got out once we got up there.It was in Westley Calif.What a trippy place.
posted by Kimo on 6-5-2010 at 4:05 am
There is a machine that will take in tires and break them down to component parts. Tire goes in, Steel, diesel, and natural gas come out. It’s efficient enough that it could be powered by a generator using the diesel fuel it produces (with some left over). It will also break down any plastic or rubber, including types that are generally considered “non-recyclable”.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 6-5-2010 at 3:02 pm
What machine…?
posted by okinawa_dato on 6-5-2010 at 10:31 pm
re: partiallydeflected
saw something like that on “dirty jobs” there is a manufacture concrete in Seattle that uses tires for fuel.
posted by vero on 6-6-2010 at 4:44 pm
Shredded tires also make up the “rubber pellets” that they use for the under-layer of field turf popular on NFL, college, and high school football stadiums across the country.
posted by AHI on 6-6-2010 at 9:23 pm
There are lots of people in Third-World countries that need shoes/sandals. Why not design a shoe/sandal that’s simple and cheap to manufacture, that lasts a long time (say, 5-8 years/pair), and that can be made out of recycled tires?
posted by Reynard on 6-7-2010 at 8:36 pm
Katrina, watch an emeging comany like GBRC for their GREEN technology application as a solution to this problem and several others related to the oil industry. Global Resources is the company and the ticker symbol is GBRC.Very interesting web site.
posted by hawk hagon on 6-8-2010 at 11:36 am
We at Tire Chef Inc. Have innovated and recieved a patent # 7101464 on microwave tire recycling. The process breaks the tires down to a # 2 diesel, activated carbon, steel and fuel gasses.
Enough oil and gas is produced to power the process with a 1 to 14 ratio, that is 14 times times the power needed to power the process.
See us at Tirechef.com.
We hae no enviromentally negative emmissions.
The process works on coal and other hydrocarbons too.
Such a shame big oil and big brother wont allow this to happen.
posted by Joe Pringle on 6-8-2010 at 11:41 am
Locally, they finished cleaning up a tire yard with 11 Million tires last year, there’s an overhead picture on the link…
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/oswego_officials_celebrate_for.html
posted by Jack W on 6-10-2010 at 7:36 pm
Edward Burtynsky OC is a Canadian photographer and artist who has achieved international recognition for his large-format photographs of industrial landscapes. His work is housed in more than fifteen major museums including the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
posted by tyre equipment on 10-1-2010 at 6:13 pm