Old, discarded tires have been a menace for years. Most people probably didn’t think too much about it unless they drove past a field stacked high with them or say a burning mass on the news. For a brief moment, a thought crossed their mind. “Can’t anything be done about this?”

Something can be done. And it’s being done in a lot of different ways. You gotta love how Americans pull together to get stuff done. These people are getting out there instead of sitting around wishing it would go away.

Let’s hear it for Americans who are trying to make a difference any way they can.

Timberland and Omni tires have formed a partnership to use old tires to make shoes under the Timberland brand. Through a complex partnership with tire distributors and recyclers, the tires will be shredded down into a form that can be used to make soles for Timberland shoes.

In Passaic, New Jersey, the town officials and residents are cleaning discarded tires out of their town. A recent clean up of the Passaic river netted over 1000 tires. City officials decided to encourage  the public to get rid of their unwanted tires, and so a tire amnesty was declared.  Citizens can bring up to 4 tires and add them to the pile. The city will the cart them off to be 100% recycled.

Pennsylvania participates in the National America Recycles day. The “Keep America Beautiful” program has been holding national recycling initiative since 1997. Since then, Pennsylvanians have recycled a whopping 735,000 discarded tires.

Jackie Brooks, of Gross Pointe Michigan has created a line of Detroit-themed bookmarks and coasters made from recycled tires. “They’re just indistructable”, Brooks said of her artwork. She’ll be selling her art at the Gross Pointe Arts Festival during the holiday season.

Citizens in Waturbury, Vermont hold an annual event called “Wheels for Warmth”. “Safe” tires are sold for pennies on the dollars and tires that can’t be sold are collected and donated to recyclers in order to raise funds for heating subsidies for the poor.This year they collected $39,391. And since 2005, these hardy New Englanders have collected $253.500 for the poor just by recycling unwanted tires.

The city of Louisville, Kentucky is using recycled tire mulch to beautify the ground around city trees.  In addition to the aesthetic benefits, the water saving properties of the tire shreds help the city to cut their water budget and keeps the water out of their sewer system.

Ayer Shirley Schools in Shirley, Massachusetts, is holding a recycling competition. Residents are encouraged to recycle all of their old “stuff”, including old tires. And while they collect things to recycle, they also collect food for the local food pantry. The winning school will earn the money earned from recycling their donations.

Rome, Georgia hosted a clean up day where they collected more than 140 loads of garbage. In conjunction with the “Keep Rome Floyd Beautiful Day” residents were encouraged to bring in up to 8 tires for recycling.