I've done sandals. Didn't manage it with a "real" car tire-- the steel belts in steel-belted radials are nasty, nasty. You can't cut them off "inside" the rubber and so end up with prickly wires sticking out of the sole! Assuming you can manage to cut the rubber well with the wires impeding you, which I could not. OTH, the 'little donut' spare tires, and some (not sure, maybe all) motorcycle tires are NYLON-belted tires, and the nylon you can cut.
If anyone is worried about the rubber leaching nasties into their garden, take a moment and question: what happens to the tire as it wears out? You change the tire when it goes bald (or hopefully before); a bald tire has lost rather a lot of material; a half-inch, perhaps, all the way around. Where did that rubber go? It's 'dust in the wind'... and in the water. So you'd best hope it's not leaching anything too horrible, because the tire dust in your local reservoir is leaching out into it much faster than the full tire is leaching it into your plants!
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branchandroot
Re: Uses for discarded tyres.
Date: 2024-02-04 01:59 am (UTC)Didn't manage it with a "real" car tire-- the steel belts in steel-belted radials are nasty, nasty. You can't cut them off "inside" the rubber and so end up with prickly wires sticking out of the sole! Assuming you can manage to cut the rubber well with the wires impeding you, which I could not.
OTH, the 'little donut' spare tires, and some (not sure, maybe all) motorcycle tires are NYLON-belted tires, and the nylon you can cut.
If anyone is worried about the rubber leaching nasties into their garden, take a moment and question: what happens to the tire as it wears out? You change the tire when it goes bald (or hopefully before); a bald tire has lost rather a lot of material; a half-inch, perhaps, all the way around. Where did that rubber go? It's 'dust in the wind'... and in the water. So you'd best hope it's not leaching anything too horrible, because the tire dust in your local reservoir is leaching out into it much faster than the full tire is leaching it into your plants!