How to Recycle Forklift Tires

According to gardening expert Charles Sanders for Backwoods Home Magazine, tractor tires--as from a forklift--make the perfect tire to recycle for other uses, due to their large size. They can be adapted into hotbeds for nursing seedlings, all-terrain planters, stacked into durable garden walls or made into tiers to contain plants or hold or store compost. Sanders recommends stopping at a local tire center, landfill or service center and requesting the center save some tractor tires for you to collect for free.

Forklift tires
Utility knife, scissors or rotary cutter
Potting soil
Seed starter soil
Seeds
Plants
Pitchfork
Sand
Dirt
Shovel

Instructions

- 1
  Cut the side wells of one side of the tire off completely using a utility knife. Point the knife away from your body as you cut and wear protective gear: boots and gloves.
  
  Fill the tractor tire with potting soil with the cut side facing up, to create a planter. Or, fill the tire with seed starter soil to plant seedlings. The rubber will help contain heat, acting as a hotbed for your seedlings.
- 2
  Make a compost bin out of forklift tires. Cut the side wells off of six tires. Stack the remaining rings on top of each other to create a tall cylinder-shaped compost bin.
  
  Fill the new bin with compost, turning each week with a pitchfork and checking with a temperature gauge that the innermost compost is between 135 and 155 degrees, the optimum temperatures for composting.
- 3
  Build a retaining wall out of forklift tires by stacking a level wall of tires. The weight will help stabilize them, but for further durability, fill the tire wells with sand or dirt using a shovel.

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