Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Inspiration

HappySprout may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Used tire planters: Genius upcycling or harmful to your health?

Rebecca Wolken
By

As gardeners, we tend to take self-sufficiency and lowering our carbon footprint very seriously. We compost, recycle, and even grow our own food. It’s only natural that finding a use for tires in the garden would excite us. Now, it seems, we might have been wrong to get too excited too quickly. Is it safe to use tires in edible gardens? Is it worth the risk?

Tire planter

Why are some gardeners using tires?

Americans throw out about 280 million tires a year. They are banned from landfills, and finding a way to legally dispose of them is challenging and expensive. Many companies have found ways to use “crumb” tires for playgrounds or athletic turf. The more ways we find to recycle tires, the fewer tires are burned. When tires are burned, they release toxic chemicals like acetone, arsenic, lead, mercury, benzene (which is a known carcinogen), and more.

Recommended Videos

This is the crux of this debate and why many gardeners feel passionately about promoting repurposing tires. Recycling tires to be a raised garden bed, for example, allows them to break down over decades and lowers the risks of these chemicals being harmful to the environment. 

tire gardening
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Why are tires potentially harmful?

Still, there are some gardeners who argue that using tires in the garden is not a safe choice. They fear the same problem with the chemicals leaching out into the earth presents itself when you use them as a solution for a raised garden bed. Plant roots have been proven to remove chemicals such as excess lead from a playground in Boston and Magic Marker chemicals from a factory site. Plants like mustard greens and pumpkins were used to remove 45 percent of the toxins.

Related

If those plants were able to soak up the lead and other potentially harmful chemicals, growers can argue that your potatoes and tomatoes could suck up the substances that are slowly released by the tire. Even though those chemicals are released over decades, there’s no evidence of how slow and how much is being released into the soil. With so many unknowns, it’s hard to make the argument that it’s worth the risk. 

Potatoes

When you shouldn’t use tires in gardening

To be on the safe side, it’s probably best practice to avoid using recycled tires in a vegetable garden. The risk of chemicals like rayon, zinc, naphthalene, PAH (another carcinogen), and many more getting leached into the soil and soaked up by your plants is just too high. There have even been studies that showed the death of microorganisms because of the chemicals that decompose off tires. When you’ve killed off the soil, your plants won’t be as healthy and are more susceptible to pests. 

While there aren’t enough studies or research to prove that used tires as planters for edibles will lead to cancer or other health problems, the risk is too high for most of us feeding our families. 

Planters
Image used with permission by copyright holder

When you should use tires in gardening

Of course, just because you might have decided not to use tires in your vegetable garden doesn’t mean that these tires can’t be used in other ways. The tire problem still exists, and any solution we can create to reduce the number of tires that are being burned is a step in the right direction. Using tires in flower beds or as other landscaping solutions is a fantastic way to upcycle them. You could paint them, stack them, or arrange them in fun and unique ways to add depth and interest in places in your garden where you won’t be eating the plants or their fruits. 

When it comes to your garden and your family, the decision is always up to you. What many gardeners love about growing their own food is the power to decide what does and does not go into their plants. Many of us choose to grow our food to avoid the harsh and sometimes nasty chemicals sprayed onto mass-produced products. The irony is that using a tire that leaks chemicals into your plants may reintroduce the problem you were running away from in the first place.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Rebecca Wolken
Rebecca Wolken
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Rebecca's has written for Bob Villa and a Cincinnati based remodeling company. When she's not writing about home remodeling…
How to build a rock garden that will make your neighbors jealous
Beautiful rock garden

Low maintenance as it may be, a rock garden can be a daunting home project to pursue. You don’t need to stick with turf forever and always, though. If you’ve always wanted to design and implement a rock garden for your home, here’s what you need to know about installing and maintaining one.

Why would you want a rock garden?
While it may not be as plant-filled as a lush meadow garden, a rock garden can come with many benefits. While you need to make an initial investment of time and money, this type of garden can be beautiful and low-maintenance in the long run. No matter what weather you face, whether it’s dry and hot or cold and rainy, rocks will more or less look the same at the end of the day. And in contrast with a flower garden bed or a green turf, you won’t need to water your plants all the time. Most people will go with water-smart succulents or other easy-care native plants, as thirsty plants are not usually compatible with a rock garden.
General costs
Since rocks are so heavy to ship, it's cheapest to source them locally. You can usually find them at your local garden centers, but it's often more cost-effective to get them from a rockery. How much your rock garden costs will depend on how much space you plan to cover with rocks and what kind of landscaping rocks you want to use. Landscaping rock projects cost anywhere between $250 to $1,500 on average. Landscaping rocks themselves can cost anywhere between $45 to $350 per ton, and this estimate may not include delivery, either. Consider potentially free sources, such as construction sites or farmers who plow up rocks — always, of course, ask before taking anything! If you don’t put down the rocks yourself, remember to factor in labor costs when calculating a budget estimate.

Read more
Where are all the butterflies? Study claims climate change is to blame
monarch butterfly swarm

Every time we turn on the TV or open a magazine, it seems like another species is endangered or going extinct. Or the opposite is happening — an invasive plant is taking over a national forest, or a type of fish is eating away an essential plant in the ocean's ecosystem. And without fail, every headline uses the term climate change and blames this newest catastrophe on its effects. As a reader, it can start to feel like clickbait, but unfortunately, most of these headlines are accurate. The impact of climate change is global, and there are so many of them they're hard to keep track of.

So today, we're going to be talking about the impact climate change has on the insect population, why it matters to gardeners, and specifically how to help the butterflies.

Read more
Use these tips to turn your bedroom into a luxurious plant haven
dog on bed with houseplant

It can sometimes be challenging to know where to put your plants. Not only do you have to consider where they'll receive the best light, but also where they'll look good within the decor of your home. One of the best rooms to arrange plants in is in the bedroom. This is the most private space in our homes, and it's where you should feel most relaxed and comfortable. Of course, nothing creates a relaxing space like plants, but where should you put them? Below, we'll dive into how you can up your bedroom plant game and ensure that your plants are helping not hindering your beauty sleep.

Use houseplants for good feng shui
Feng shui is an ancient technique of arranging a space to ensure it's connected and in harmony with the natural world. A lot of research goes into fully exploring this topic; you could spend years studying the best practices. However, what's most important about feng shui and houseplants is that they're a vital piece to the five elements that should be included in your home arrangement. They represent the wood element that brings flexibility, kindness, and movement to a room.

Read more