NASCAR gets in on the rubber mulch action

Rubber mulch is making headway into the big leagues these days, with entrepreneurs and landscape designers recycling NASCAR's old Goodyear tires for mulch and other home decor.

From an article in The Sacramento Bee:

NASCAR tires: A coveted conversation piece for high-octane man caves, tables using a race-worn tire as a base are popular with NASCAR fans (see NascarTire.com), but those big blackwalls have other uses, too. The Sprint Cup series consumes about 600 tires per race; that's more than 24,000 a season. Instead of dumping the 20-pound tires into landfills, companies such as Goodyear (NASCAR's tire provider) have started turning them into such products as patio pavers and shredded rubber mulch. Entrepreneurs also make beverage coolers out of NASCAR tires -- perfect for tailgating. 

600 tires a race may not seem like that much (actually that is quite a lot!) but over 24,000 a season at 20 pounds a piece is about 480,000 pounds of wasted tires NOT going into landfills! Good on you, NASCAR.