The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has announced a grant of $313,906 for the Smith County Board of Education through the state’s Tire Environmental Act Program. The Smith County Board of Education will contribute matching funds of $78,476 to install rubber mulch made from recycled scrap tires as playground surfaces for 18 playgrounds and one picnic area across seven district schools. The overall project cost is $392,382, and the initiative aims to provide sustainable play surfaces that meet safety requirements for school children.
“The Tire Environmental Act Program provides ways to retrieve old tires and repurpose them into community assets,” said TDEC Deputy Commissioner Greg Young. “These grants help make that happen, and we look forward to the results that come from this process.”
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The project will require 680 tons of rubber mulch, equivalent to approximately 62,000 scrap tires. Rubber mulch has a longer lifespan compared to wood mulch, which will help the schools significantly reduce annual restocking costs.
The Tire Environmental Act Program funds projects that result in beneficial uses for waste tires, falling under one of three categories: tire processing/recycling, tire-derived material use, or research and development. Grant funding is available to local governments, non-profit organizations, higher education institutions, K-12 schools, and for-profit businesses.
Established in 2015, the Tire Environmental Fund collects a flat fee based on the number of wheels on a vehicle upon its first retail sale in Tennessee. This fee goes into the fund, which supports projects that create beneficial end uses for waste tires.
Since its inception, the program has awarded almost $9.2 million, diverting approximately 7.6 million tires or nearly 82,000 tons of scrap tires from landfills. The recycled tires are used in rubberized asphalt, tire-derived aggregate, tire-derived fuel, granulated rubber porous flexible pavement, and other beneficial end uses.
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Tims Ford State Park Receives Trail Development Grant
Tims Ford State Park has received a $217,060 grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation‘s Tire Environmental Act Program, supplemented by $54,265 in matching funds, to develop ADA-compliant trails using recycled scrap tires as part of the Access 2030 initiative.