A few years ago, I visited Chanticleer Gardens on a warm summer’s day. Turning down a side path, I admired the flowers, but noticed a strange chemical smell, like a car lot on a hot day. I sped up as the smell became stronger and an asthma attack came on. Months later, I visited Duke Gardens, only to leave after realizing that in their mission to support “reduce, recycle, reuse” they, like Chanticleer, had laid pathways of recycled rubber.
Recycled rubber in the form of rubber crumb is used for sports fields and increasingly in children’s playgrounds, sidewalks, and park trails. My reaction to the off gassing of the recycled rubber’s toxic chemicals had me wondering who else is experiencing this? And if the airborne chemicals are capable of provoking a reaction, then what are these chemicals capable of doing to us when in our soil and water?
What are tires made of?
In the 1880s, the “modern” tire was made of natural rubber, as opposed to the previous ones made with leather and metal. By the 1920s, synthetic rubber, made of oil, was invented and changed the manufacturing of tires completely from an industry connected to rubber tree plantations (and deforestation) to oil well production (ecological contamination). The set of chemicals introduced into industry through oil are called petrochemicals. Oxford Languages defines petrochemicals as “relating to or denoting substances obtained by the refining and processing of petroleum or natural gas.” Many petrochemicals are hormone disruptors and cause problems within the human body. Seven gallons of oil are used to produce one tire. In addition, over 200 other ingredients are added, including carbon black (a coal product) and heavy metals like zinc.
How are tires disposed of?
Rubber crumb, one of the most common products of recycled rubber tires in the US, can be found in playgrounds, sports fields, sidewalks, pathways, and parking lots. It’s also used in highway projects and as an additive to asphalt to lower vibration. Some companies still hold permits to burn tires for energy for manufacturing purposes. Burying whole tires in landfills is illegal.
So what?
It’s well documented that burning tires releases a chemical cocktail of cyanide, carbon monoxide, and more. It is a health and environmental hazard. But with rubber crumb, the studies are still in their infancy (only a few decades) and many have been funded by the very businesses selling recycled rubber. This is not a new problem in the US. Read Radium Girlsby Kate Moore and you can see just how much power and influence companies have to manipulate situations in order to make a profit. In the Radium Girls case, the business profits came at the price of much human suffering and loss of life.
Reactions to rubber crumb are many. Scientists and doctors have stepped forward warning towns and schools about the health hazards of this material, yet the industry powers on. As early as 1993 a study in California proved airborne latex particles are connected to an increase in latex allergies and asthma (full article here). As for using rubber crumb in playgrounds, an NBC report quotes medical experts who contend that daily exposure to the toxic chemicals found in rubber crumb on playgrounds has the potential to wreak havoc on a child’s developing system as the chemical exposure builds up in the body over time. Clean Water Action poses the logical question: if tires are viewed as too toxic to bury in landfills, then why are they considered safe in children’s playgrounds?
Playing both sides
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has some cagey answers on the subject. While the evidence stands that recycled rubber not only poses an airborne threat, but also a contamination threat to soil and water, the EPA has played both sides by not taking a side. Their own report says they do not consider rubber crumb dangerous, because “without exposure there is no risk.” Seriously? And they have not done a complete risk assessment (read report here). None of this is particularly surprising if we are to imagine the numbers of big business and billions of profit involved. We only have to look to the continued availability of herbicides like Roundup, which is linked to cancer, and yet still legal in the US. Many countries have banned this herbicide, but the EPA’s statement again is that the chemical is safe as long as a person is not exposed to a certain level of the herbicide. This is the same reasoning as with rubber crumb, but we, the public, are being exposed to these toxic byproducts at larger unknown levels because they are not measured. We come in contact with these chemicals through air, water, and soil almost everywhere. What happens when a toddler plays on a daycare playground almost 365 days a year then goes to a home where recycled rubber is used in other products like sidewalks or parks? That is multiple interactions with petrochemical toxins, multiple exposures which add up over time.
Follow the money
Even with mounting evidence that rubber crumb is a public safety hazard, decades of research will continue to go into proving how toxic the material is. We can see this in the standstill on similar hazardous substances like Roundup, even though the company has virtually admitted that its product causes cancer by paying out large amounts in lawsuits. Still, big business has the money to stall and bias studies to continue making profit. Again, read Radium Girls by Kate Moore.
Hope?
While the future of rubber crumb may be fraught with controversy, perhaps the real solution lies in creating less toxic tires in the first place. Research and development at tire manufacturers include using plants like dandelions as a natural rubber source. Some companies are also studying how to create a less toxic carbon black. Whether these innovations will lead to reduced toxicity, remains to be seen. In the meantime, tire disposal is a problem which is unlikely to be solved. At this point, though, can we not agree that some products pose too much of a public health risk to be recycled and reused?
