It’s bad news because it means there are millions and millions of tires hanging around doing nothing. As of 2003, the EPA estimates there are about 500 million tires in tire graveyards. That’s not great news for the environment. On the other hand, this is great news if you ever needed to use them in a survival situation. Tires are an underestimated resource for survival situations. Why exactly? Well, check out the incredible reasons tires make a great resource in survival situations.
- Made of waterproof rubber
- Incredibly durable (designed to live on abrasive surfaces)
- Are easy to transport
- Cheap (or free)
- Come in different sizes
- Plus a lot more. It’s all of these reasons that make tires a great survival tool. If you’re curious to see what you can do with tires take a look at some of the following.
Well you just need a cutting tool and then some way to secure them to your feet (paracord, duct tape, etc.). Then you make the cut out (as picture below) and you’ve now got a shoe/sandal.
2) Garden
This is one of the more common survival uses for old tires, one you’ve probably seen before. That doesn’t mean it’s any less advantageous in a survival situation. And considering how many old, spare tires are out there it’s honestly a great way to recycle tires for better use. The premise is simple. You use the tires as a planter bed and then plant seeds inside of the tires. Now there are quite a few options with using tires as planters.
You can create smaller ones that are made to be moved around, or you can bury them into the ground in a more elaborate garden setup. Whatever option you choose they’re quite effective at helping you create a survival garden.
Part of the reason tires are great for planter beds is because they’ll keep moisture locked inside (especially true if you seal the bottoms) and they’re compact which allows you to create multiple planter gardens. They’re also much more durable than fragile pots made of plastic and or terra-cotta which is a huge benefit in a survival situation.
3) Catch Fish
This tip comes from a pastor named Raymond Bradford who swore it worked for him as a friend. While I have yet to try it personally it seemed like such an outrageous and effective idea I had to include it. Here’s how he said it works:
While I pastored a church in South Carolina, one of my church members introduced me to “tire fishing”. We prepared the tires by “sewing the tires shut where the wheel hub had been. Then we cut one hole on the outside where the tread was(about big enough to barely cover the hole with your hand.
So we went to his lake property and took 26 old tires each and in the earliest part of the year that we could stand to get into the water up to waist deep, we spread the tires over a large area of the bottom making sure all the air was out of the tires. Two days later we went back wading to “check” the tires and found them with our toes.
Then we would bend over and cover the hole with our hand and slowly bring the tire above the surface letting water drain out of the hole. If you heard a tail flopping there was a fish inside and it would half scare you to death until you got used to it. We would reach into the hole to see if we were reaching the tail end of the fish or the head end of the fish. If we felt the tail, we had to retract our arm from the hold and go in the other direction.
When we felt the head, (catfish that is) we would reach our two fingers over the head and hook our fingers over the two side fins and drag the fish out and flip him in our fish bag. Out of one checking for fish in those tires, we caught 29 fish from 52 tires between 1 1/2 lbs to 2 1/2 lbs. Every other day we checked those tires and would get varying amounts from the teens to maybe 25-30 fish. (I used a larger tire in 10′ of water at the end of the pier and checked it the same way, swimming down and pulling the tire up to the surface with my hand over the hole and wrapped my legs around a piling to check it.
One time I got one over five pounds. Needless to say, one can fill a freezer pretty fast that way. This really took place and this is not exaggerated.
Pretty cool way to catch fish and a great survival use for old tires I’m sure you’d agree.
4) Garbage Containers
Here’s the thing about survival situations, you’re going to start producing a lot of waste the longer you’re out there surviving.
That waste needs to go somewhere and it has to be contained for safety’s sake. If you don’t keep it contained it could signal to others you have a wealth of supplies they can access or it could attract dangerous animals. That’s why tires are a great option for garbage containment.
This is a practice that’s commonly seen in countries like Thailand. What you can do is stack tires together and then place trash inside of them. This keeps trash contained, keeps it safe, and keeps it out of the eyes of people who might be snooping around.
5) Home
This is a very intense use for tires, but in the event, the world does go to hell in a handbasket then this option is significantly better than trying to build a house out of lumber. What you're going to do here is use walls like the walls of your home. The process is definitely labor-intensive, but tires will give you something traditional housing structures can’t.
- They’re nearly indestructible
- They’re efficient for energy savings
- They’re cheap, if not free
- They require little additional tools to form a home