In this week’s episode, Charlie talks with Craig Hunter, the president of Tire Reclaim, a dedicated tire reclamation organization with multiple facilities across Idaho. Hunter discusses Tire Reclaim’s origins, its growth to processing more than two million tires in Idaho, and the environmental motivations behind diverting discarded tires from public lands, waterways, and landfills. Charlie and Hunter explore some of the ways discarded tires can be transformed into useful resources, including crumb rubber, molded products, tire-derived aggregate, and rubberized asphalt. As Idaho continues to confront the environmental challenges of discarded materials, the conversation examines how reclamation can turn a persistent waste problem into an opportunity for sustainable resource use and infrastructure. A secondary episode will continue to discuss sustainable recycling of discarded tires and how Tire Reclaim is tackling the problem of mass “Legacy Piles” across the state.
Systematic Review of Research on Discarded Tire Environmental Impact, conducted by the EPA:
https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_Report.cfm?dirEntryId=361070&Lab=CPHEA
