• Flooring is just one practical product made from recycled tires.Thomas Northcut/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  As of 2003, the U.S. generated almost 300 million scrap tires every year. You may have reused a few tires to make a tire swing or planting container. Around 1970, Taos builder Michael Reynolds developed earthship houses, which are made by packing used tires with dirt and stacking them. On a larger industrial scale, manufacturers now recycle tires into more than 100 new products including flooring, containers, footwear, landscaping materials and rubberized asphalt.
  
  

Flooring

• Recycled tires are used as flooring for commercial buildings. They are an excellent choice for ski lodges, providing a floor surface that is not damaged by ski boots and that can be easily cleaned of dirt and melted snow. Rubber offgasses, so it should be used in well-ventilated areas. Tires are also recycled into various sizes of paving mats for anti-fatigue workplace mats, outdoor walkways and flooring for livestock stalls.
  
  

Athletic Fields

• In 2001, 80 million pounds of recycled tire rubber were made into a surfacing material for running tracks and other athletic fields. The product is also used on playgrounds, where its resilience protects children from falls.
  
  

Consumer Goods

• Imagination may be the only limiting factor in the number of household products that can be made from recycled tires. Welcome mats, plant pots, rainbarrels and sandals are readily available. Designers are inventing patio furniture, handbags, sculpture, jewelry and accessories. Recycled tires are used to make construction materials such as patio decks, roofing tiles, carpet underlay and a molded rubber product that replaces railway ties in landscape applications. Recycled tires are also made into automotive products including brake pads and some new tires contain a small percentage of recycled tire rubber.
  
  

Shredded Tires

• Shredded tires are used in the place of wood chips or bark mulch in landscaping applications, especially along roadways and around public buildings. The shredded tire product is also used in playgrounds and public park walkways. Shredded rubber from scrap tires is embedded in concrete to build sound barriers along major highways. The rubber deflects and absorbs sound waves to reduce highway traffic noise. Recycled tire shreds provide a subgrade fill material for civil engineering applications, where it usually replaces a more expensive new material. Such uses include fill and erosion control along highway embankments, forest and coastal roads, backfill for wall and bridge abutments and road insulation in colder climates.
  
  

Rubberized Asphalt

• Ground tire rubber is blended with asphalt used in highway construction. This product provides longer lasting road surfaces and reduces road noise. The Federal Highway Administration and the states of Arizona and Florida have led in the use of rubberized asphalt, with several other states studying or experimenting with the product.