What is the use of a layer of tires embedded in Americans when building roads? Why doesn't China follow suit?

The United States produces about 300 million per year Waste tires How to deal with it is a big problem!

Some tires are refurbished by small workshops, polished and carved patterns, and the new products continue to be sold, but this behavior hides a crisis.

The original tread thickness of a brand new tire is about 13~15mm, the retreading thickness is less than 8mm, the drainage performance is reduced by 40%, the braking distance in wet conditions is extended by 20%, and the accident rate of retreaded tires on rainstormy days is 3 times higher than that of new tires. (Everyone should also pay attention to discernment when changing tires)

In addition to renovation, the most direct way is to burn.

The calorific value of waste tires is higher than that of coal, about 7000~8000 kcal per kilogram, especially at the moment when power energy is scarce, waste tires are also useful, but the consequence of doing so is "environmental pollution".

The sulfur content of tires is about 2%, and the combustion of one ton of tires will release 5~10kg of sulfur dioxide, which can easily cause acid rain.

In addition, tire combustion will produce a large amount of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, hydrogen sulfide, etc., in addition to polluting the air, heavy metals such as zinc, lead, cadmium and other heavy metals in tires will gradually penetrate into the soil and groundwater after being washed by rain, causing continuous damage to the environment.

If you don't deal with it, you can't deal with it, what should I do with waste tires?

The Americans suddenly thought, why not throw these waste tires into the ocean?

Don't be in a hurry, there is really some scientific basis in this matter.

After the large man-made objects sink into the sea, an ecological zone will gradually form, such as abandoned ships, decommissioned subway cars, etc., which can provide natural shelter for small fish and shrimp.

So in the 70s of the 20th century, Americans fixed millions of waste tires and formed an array the size of 31 football fields on the seabed, hoping to attract marine life.

The result is not satisfactory, because the salt content in the seawater is too high, which will accelerate the decomposition of rubber, resulting in the heavy metals in the tires "escape", and the surrounding area not only does not form a new ecological group, but becomes a "dead sea", and the nylon rope used to fix the tire is corroded after 5 years, and these toxic and harmful waste tires spread out, and even spread to North Carolina and other waters, constantly destroying natural marine coral reefs along the way.

In 2004, a person calledSamuel BonassoAfter seeing the marine pollution of waste tires, he began to think about how to solve it.

After combining his major, Professor Bonasso suddenly had an idea that he could use waste tires to build roads!

We all know thatHoneycomb structureThe compressive resistance, deformation resistance, and impact resistance far exceed traditional structural data, such as the honeycomb mezzanine in the aerospace field, which can withstand an impact load of more than 20G.

Professor Bonassault immediately started the experiment, he cut off the upper and lower edges of the tires, tried to arrange them in a honeycomb structure, buried them in the ground, and then introduced gravel and other materials into the center of the tires, with a unit bearing capacity of 150 tons/㎡, far exceeding the 75 tons/㎡ of ordinary roads.

Multiple building units form the roadbed, and finally a layer of asphalt is laid, and a brand new road is paved.

Compared with traditional highways, where potholes or ruts often appear, the quality of roads paved with waste tires is significantly higher than that of traditional roads, which not only solves the problem of waste tires, but also saves road maintenance costs in disguise, and the proportion is reduced by about 75%, for exampleMortonburg Coal Transport Line。

In fact, there is another advantage to doing this, because the sand and gravel aggregate in the United States is very expensive, about $15~20 per ton, and the recycling cost of waste tires is only $0.5 per piece, even if the two roads are in the same quality standard, the cost of road construction using waste tires is lower.

Since there are so many benefits of road construction with waste tires, why doesn't China imitate it?

China is also a big automobile country, from the official data, as of March 30, 2025, China's car ownership is as high as 350 million, the growth rate is relatively fast, you don't need to think about it, how to dispose of waste tires is also a big problem.

But we have not seen videos or pictures of China using waste tires as foundations for road construction.

In fact, the truth is that we are also building roads with waste tires.

Unlike the United States, China recycles old tires and processes them into a particle size of 0.3~1.18mmGlue powder, through wet process and asphalt compounding to form high viscoelastic paving materials.

Once the entire tire is buried, once the roadbed is damaged, it needs to be dug up and rebuilt, and the construction period and cost are relatively high.

And we beat the tires into powder and completely melt into the road, where it is damaged, only need to make up a small piece, the construction period is fast, and the cost is low.

Considering that our country's logistics and transportation industry is developed, large trucks put greater pressure on the highway, resulting in our national conditions being different from those of the United States, so we use the sameWhen old tires are built on the road, they are buried directly, and we are broken and buried.