Tennessee State Parks unveils trail made from recycled tires

Officials from Tennessee State Parks and the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) have unveiled a new hard-surface walking and biking trail made from rubber crumbs derived from tires. The 2.5-mile trail located at T.O. Fuller State Park is one of the longest rubber-bearing trails in the U.S.

According to a release, the tires had been illegally dumped in the area around the park and were gathered by volunteers and local contractors. The tires were then transformed into crumbs by Patriot Tire Recycling in Bristol, Tennessee—the only facility in the state with the ability to recycle tires in such a way.

Once the tires were recycled into crumbs, the material was brought back to the park for construction of the trail. The crumbs are between one-quarter inch and three-eighths inch in size.

The project, which began with collection in 2019, was funded by a Tire Environmental Act Program grant of $250,000 from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), a special litter grant of $200,000 from TDOT, and a Federal Highway-Recreational Trails Program grant of $280,000 from TDEC’s Division of Recreation Resources.

“This is a quintessential example of recycling in full circle, collecting dumped material then converting it into positive use,” said David Salyers, commissioner of TDEC. “It’s exactly the kind of responsible environmental activity Tennesseans can be proud of, where an area can be cleaned up then have people enjoy the benefits in a new way.”

The trail largely replaces worn cart paths from an old golf course, with new connections making for a modern loop trail design.  

Workers cleaned up over 24,000 dumped tires, including passenger, commercial truck and heavy equipment tires. The cleanup had 450 registered volunteers and saw 10,000 tires collected in one day. The project was a partnership between the TDEC, TDOT, the city of Memphis, Shelby County and Memphis City Beautiful.