Central Global Science Class - Exploring new uses for old tires
By Pam Reinig
Register Editor
When Central students were challenged by their Global Science instructor Ann Gritzner to come up with an impactful project, their wheels started turning in traditional ways.
“We talked about picking up trash or working at the food shelf,” said Central senior Travis Prier. “But the more we talked about it, we realized those things were already being done. We wanted to try something new and by tossing around ideas, we came up with the tire recycling idea.”
Students want to repurpose old tires into playground equipment, planters and even art pieces. They’ve scoured the Internet for additional ideas and have found at least one suggestion for bringing their project indoors.
“Based on what we’ve seen, you can cut old tires into strips, flatten them and use them to retread stairs,” said Jonathan Fangman, also a Central senior.
Work on the project began with students calling local businesses to see how they dispose of used tires. They also checked with the county to see where tires could be left. When they learned that the county does not have arrangements for tire disposal, they met with Clayton County Supervisors to see if a local recycling company could place a dedicated garbage dumpster at the county’s Elkader dump site. The recycling company has already agreed, pending supervisors’ approval. There will be no charge for the dumpster but the company will assess $135 per ton of tires collected, an amount the students will raise through drop-off fees.
“They plan to charge $3 for each car tire, $5 for trucks and $8 for semi-truck tires,” said Board Chair Gary Bowden. “Our garbage monitors will collect the fee for the students. There should be no cost to the county for this.”
The group will take their idea to the Central School Board in December and will make another trip to the supervisors soon after that. They hope to have their recycling dumpster in place by spring.
“There’s still a lot we need to learn like regulations for playgrounds,” said Prier. “That’s a pretty big deal. We’ve been given a handbook to help us with that. We’ve also talked to (Superintendent) Trenkamp and he’s totally on board.
Though the entire class is involved in the project, five students are spearheading it. In addition to Prier and Fangman, that nucleus includes senior Leann Doeppke and underclassmen Morgan Grocholski and Mikhaela Farmer. The timetable for the project means that the group’s seniors may not be around to see the results of their efforts. That doesn’t diminish the value of the effort for them, however.
“I’m in the Army,” said Fangman, a National Guard enlistee. “We serve the people and this project is me serving the people while not in uniform.”
“It will also give kids something different to play on,” added Doeppke, “and reusing the tires will be a lot better than looking at them in ditches.”