Tires take a beating in Los Angeles. Just the L.A. freeway system alone handles over twelve million cars on a daily basis, leading to a daily average migration of over 300 million miles. The city has not only one of the largest high-speed road networks in the world, but also the highest per-capita car population in the world. With a roughly 1.8 cars per household average, more than 26 million cars clog the greater L.A. area.
Doing the math, this equates to a formula that reveals there are more cars in California than people in any of the other states in the Union. Looking at the math another way, there are around 104 tires in Los Angeles alone (four times 26 million). Adding in uncounted motorcycles ups the tire total even more. Not to mention a lot of cars have more than four tires, but I’ve yet to see any with three. That’s a lot of Los Angeles tires to dispose of!
One good way to avoid that day of disposal, or at least postpone it, is to keep a tire gage in your car and make sure tires are inflated to proper levels. The PSI number (or pounds per square inch) can be found on the sidewall of your tires, on a sticker usually on the inside of the driver’s door, or in the manual that came with your vehicle. If the lettering on the tire reads 44 PSI, the tire maker is saying that’s the maximum amount it should be inflated to. The sticker on the door or manual will give you the number the manufacturer of the car recommends. They don’t always match, so be on the lookout.
Driving in high heat doesn’t take long to tear up a tire. Hot roads and hot air expand the air inside your tire, heating up the side walls. That will start deteriorating the inner lining of the tire, causing a dirt-like substance that will eat the rubber up. Checking for cracks along the side of the wall of the tire is something to do to determine whether it’s time for some new ones.
Eventually it will be time to replace and dispose of your tires. What happens to them then?
There use to be days when tires would get taken to junk yards and get resold. Others would throw them into lakes or ponds and hope that no one noticed. Now, less drastic measures are used.
Today, when you buy a new tire, the store takes your old one and recycles it. That rubber is ground up and used in a variety of applications. Synthetic turf fields are created for playing football and soccer. Modern playgrounds often have a spongy substance to walk on and protect children from harsh falls. The surface is made from used rubber! Gardening mulch is another product.
With the push for go greening, naturally more solutions and uses are discovered for recyclable goods. California is leading the way in this effort. One hundred years from now, who knows what they’ll think of next?
