Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Academic Institution
Principal Investigator:
Emerging Business
Program Manager:
Jan C. Meneley
President
AgBio Development, Inc.
9915 Raleigh Street
Westminster, CO 80030
______________________________
Steven E. Newman Date
______________________________
Jan C. Meneley
Date
Project Summary
It is estimated that less than 25% of the 200-300 million used tires generated in the U.S.
annually are recycled. This project focused on the feasibility of developing horticultural substrate
products and the feasibility of extracting additional value from recycled tires by removing zinc
contaminates and converting it to a fertilizer through a washing process. These processes have the
potential to be licensed to tire recycling companies throughout North America.
The objectives of this project were to determine the feasibility of the use of waste tire
rubber in horticulture with the following sub-objectives:
Develop a root-zone medium using crumb rubber for the production of greenhouse crops;
Develop a means to produce a zinc fertilizer product and/or a zinc nitrate fertilizer
product by washing available zinc from the crumb rubber with nitric acid; and
Develop a means to produce a zinc enriched nutraceutical health supplement or a zinc
supplement for livestock.
There are many technologies available for the disposal of waste tires. One such emerging
technology under consideration is the use of shredded waste tires as a container growth medium,
which is only now being fully explored. Potting media containing waste tires could potentially
reduce the need for imported media constituents as well as remove more tires from the waste stream.
Petunia plants grown on potting media with 50% crumb rubber previously washed in nitric acid for
4 days had 129 mg ZnAkg-1. This indicated that some surface erosion was occurring making a greater
level of zinc available from the rubber for plant uptake. Petunia plants grown on rubber that was
washed in nitric acid for 8 days had a lower level of zinc in the tissue than those grown on rubber
washed for 4 days. Longer washing may reduce the zinc tissue levels even lower eliminating the
zinc toxicity risk.
Zinc is deficient in many alkaline soils of the Western U.S. and Canada and is supplied by
various types of zinc fertilizers. Zinc sulfate is commonly used to supply the zinc requirement of
field crops. Crumb rubber from waste tires has a significant level of zinc, which is readily available
for plant uptake. Nitric acid washes yielded 213 mgAL-1 after 8 days and a second wash yielded an
additional 106 mgAL-1 after an additional 8 days . This product can be reduced and concentrated into
a zinc nitrate formulation for use as a zinc fertilizer source.
Zinc formulations of nutraceutical products are important in maintaining human health. A
potential nutraceutical formulation was developed using plants known to be zinc accumulators and
when grown on soil amended with crumb rubber had high levels of zinc in its tissue. This tissue
could then be processed and evaluated as a nutraceutical product. Alfalfa is a known accumulator
of zinc with little phytotoxicity and when grown on media amended with crumb rubber, the zinc
level detected was 365 mgAkg-1, almost four times the normal concentration. To incorporate the high
zinc alfalfa into a human diet, 41 g of the dried alfalfa would yield the minimum daily requirements.
For livestock, a typical dairy cow would require 60 kg of the high zinc alfalfa to satisfy about 25%
of the minimum daily requirement.
Technical Assistance
Justification:
The floriculture and nursery industry of the United States has expanded more than 200% the
past two decades. The market value of this industry in 1979 was $1.6 billion and in 1998, $4.46
billion . The floriculture and nursery industry is an important component of the Colorado economy.
In 1998, the wholesale value was $200.4 million, which represented approximately 15% of crop
agriculture in Colorado.
Production of a traditional herbaceous flowering plants, bedding plants and potted color,
requires a sizeable investment. Of that investment, variable costs include containers, cuttings or
seeds, pots, tags, pesticides, and container growth medium. Container growth medium represents
9% of the variable cost alone (Taylor et al., 1990) and alternatives to traditional media are being
sought. The use of solid waste products, municipal and agricultural, as a container growth medium
has been proposed to be an alternative to traditional land filling and as an economical alternative
growth medium source. When developing a container medium, its components must be (1) readily
available; (2) relatively inexpensive; (3) light enough to be handled conveniently within the nursery
or greenhouse and to be transported economically to market; (4) free of pests or be capable of being
sterilized without the production of toxic substances; (5) economically blended into a uniform,
relatively stable medium; and (6) capable of being stored for short periods of time without
significant changes in the physical and chemical properties (Davidson et al., 1988).
The use of waste products as a container growth medium component for the production of
landscape plants and floriculture crops is a viable alternative to peat moss and pine bark (Neel et al.,
1978) or can be used to increase the water holding capacity of media containing bark. Amending
soils with animal and plant remains is an ancient practice (Gogue and Sanderson, 1975). Composted
sewage sludge and municipal compost has been successfully used for container plant media (Chaney
et al., 1980; Sanderson and Martin, 1974). Composted rice hulls replacing up to 50% of the pine
bark in media produced excellent growth of container-grown landscape species (Laiche and Nash,
1990). Livestock manure in media increases water and nutrient retention due to favorable water
holding properties and high cation exchange capacity (Nelson, 1985). Manure also offers the added
benefit of containing plant nutrients that are released during degradation.
There are many technologies available for the disposal of waste tires. One such emerging
technology under consideration is the use of shredded waste tires as a container growth medium,
which is only now being fully explored. Potting media containing waste tires could potentially
reduce the need for imported media constituents as well as remove more tires from the waste stream.
Zinc toxicity, however, continues to be a problem. Many tires may contain high levels of
zinc and if the pH is not maintained above 6.5, the plants will be subjected to excessive levels of
zinc. Foliar levels of zinc have been previously shown to be high by plants grown in waste rubber
products (Bowman et al., 1994; Newman et al., 1997; Ward, 1973; Zhao, 1995). Adequate levels
of foliar zinc for most crops is from 40 to 200 mg/kg (Jones et al., 1991), yet the zinc level for most
plants grown in media containing rubber was greater than 200 mg/kg Zinc. This has been attributed
to the inherently high levels of zinc available in the rubber. Zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate or zinc
isopropylxanthate is used as an accelerator to reduce the time needed for vulcanization of rubber
(Roff et al., 1971), which contributes to the elevated levels of zinc in the media.
Zinc is an important minor element in crop production. Calcium and sulfur are important
minor nutrients and the contribution of nitrogen in the solution all add value to the zinc nitrate
fertilizer. Zinc is deficient in many alkaline soils of the Western U.S. and Canada and is supplied
by various types of zinc fertilizers. Zinc sulfate is commonly used to supply the zinc requirement
of field crops. Noting that tire rubber contains around 2.5% zinc, a potential zinc fertilizer could be
developed by rinsing the waste tire products, crumb rubber and fiber, with a dilute nitric acid
solution. The resulting product would be a zinc nitrate solution available, which after reduction and
concentration, would be used as a liquid fertilizer product for Western soils. This would potentially
also reduce the potential zinc phytotoxicity of intact crumb rubber.
Untreated rubber added to zinc deficient agricultural soils could provide a source of zinc plus
some calcium and sulfur as the nutrients are leached over time. Zinc would be more quickly leached
with decreasing grind sizes (Newman et al., 1997) and the rubber particles will also improve the tilth
of clay soils typical in many Western states. There is also the suggestion that some crops can be
treated with high rates of crumb rubber to provide above normal rates of zinc and accumulated in
the plant. Crops such as alfalfa, which accumulate high levels of zinc without phytotoxicity, could
be grown with rubber amended soils resulting in supra-optimal levels of zinc. Zinc enriched alfalfa
could be marketed as a nutraceutical alfalfa zinc health supplement. However, the resulting products
will require scrutiny for contamination from heavy metals or any other potential industrial pollutants
common to automobile tires.
Objectives:
The objectives of this project were to determine the feasibility of the use of waste tire
rubber in horticulture with the following sub-objectives:
Develop a root-zone medium using crumb rubber for the commercial production of
greenhouse crops;
Develop a means to produce a zinc fertilizer product and/or a zinc nitrate fertilizer
product by washing available zinc from the crumb rubber; and
Develop a means to produce a zinc enriched nutraceutical health supplement or a zinc
supplement for livestock.
extraction means. To 250 ml Erlenmeyer flasks, 50 g of crumb rubber was added and then soaked
in a 50 ml volume of either 0.5 or 2 N nitric acid for either 0, 1, 2, or 3 weeks and then leached a
second time with 0.5 or 2 N nitric acid for 1, 2, or 3 weeks. The resulting leachates for each
normality and time combination, and were then analyzed for zinc, lead and cadmium using
inductively coupled plasma emission spectrophotometry by a commercial laboratory.
Zinc extraction with nitric acid
Wash #1 0.5 N
Wash #2 0.5 N
Wash #1 2.0 N
Wash #2 2.0 N
60
40
20
0
160
120
80
40
0
4
3
Cadmium (ppb)
Wash #1 0.5 N
Wash #2 0.5 N
Wash #1 2.0 N
Wash #2 2.0 N
200
Lead (ppb)
Zinc (ppm)
80
2
1
0
0
cadmium contamination. The acid washed crumb rubber was saved for a subsequent greenhouse
evaluation.
First wash
Second wash
1200
200
Lead (ppb)
Zinc (ppm)
250
150
100
1000
50
800
600
400
200
0
0
0
Cadmium (ppb)
First Wash
Second wash
20
15
10
5
0
0
With the increased volume of crumb rubber, much more zinc was rinsed from the rubber
granule surface (Fig. 4) than from the initial small scale study (Fig. 1). The first wash yielded 213
mgAL-1 after 8 days and the second wash yielded an additional 106 mgAL-1 after an additional 8 days
As before, a significant amount of lead and cadmium was rinsed from the crumb rubber as well. The
first wash leached 1.1 mgAL-1 lead after 4 days with no increase after an additional 4 days (Fig. 5).
The second wash yielded an additional 0.68 mgAL-1 lead after 4 days. The first wash leached 0.02
mgAL-1 cadmium after 8 days and the second wash leached an additional 0.005 mgAL-1 after 4 days
with no increase after an additional 4 days (Fig. 6).
Greenhouse Procedures:
Greenhouse trials were completed to determine an economical blend of waste tire products
with traditional media components for plant production. Commercially grown petunia plugs were
transplanted into 10 cm square pots filled with greenhouse media blended 1:1 (by volume) with
sphagnum peat moss and crumb rubber that was washed in 2 N nitric acid for 0, 2, 4, or 8 days as
previously described. The plants were grown in the greenhouse for 8 weeks and the resulting tissue
was dried for 48 hours at 70/C and weighed. The tissue was then ground to 60 mesh and delivered
to a commercial laboratory to determine zinc, lead and cadmium levels using inductively coupled
plasma emission spectrophotometry by a commercial laboratory
2800
2400
2000
1600
1200
800
400
0
70
60
50
40
30
20
0
on four levels of crumb rubber, 0, 5, 15, 35, and 50% (by volume) and compared to a standard
greenhouse sphagnum peat moss medium.
Zinc (ppm)
400
300
200
100
0
r
r
r
r
r
be bbe bbe bbe bbe ouse
b
Ru
Ru
Ru
Ru enh
Ru
No 5% 15% 35% 50% Gre
crop, alfalfa known to accumulate high levels of zinc without phytotoxicity, was grown. High
zinc alfalfa could be marketed as a nutraceutical alfalfa zinc health supplement for livestock and
human consumption.
Untreated crumb rubber will also be produced/distributed by the same licensee/partner
companies who manufacture the zinc nitrate fertilizer solution for AgBio. The crumb rubber
will be marketed by AgBio.
Soil amendment for potting mixes
The third product demonstrated with this project is the use of leached crumb rubber as
a potting mix addition. In the greenhouse and nursery industry, plants are grown in a variety of
different media. Today, soil or earth is only a minor component of nursery potting mixtures,
whereas in the past it was the primary component. Soil has been primarily replaced by
sphagnum peat moss as the main media ingredient with a wide range of common additives to
provide good aeration, mineral exchange and water holding capacity. Typical additives include
perlite, vermiculite, calcined clays, pumice, cinders, polystyrene beads, rice hulls, sawdusts and
wood chips/shavings.
Crumb rubber, which has had some of the zinc removed through washing, will be offered
as a product to substitute for the common potting mix additives. Hundreds of millions of pounds
of amendments are used in the greenhouse/nursery industry. For instance the most widely used
amendment is perlite that is made by heating siliceous volcanic rock to 1500 /F. World use of
perlite in horticulture is estimated 300,000 tons equal to 100 million cubic feet. The wholesale
price for perlite is about $ 2/cu.ft., a $200 million market. The market size of calcined clay,
pumice stone, polystyrene beads, etc. is unknown, but certainly is in the millions of dollars.
Acid washed crumb rubber potting amendment will also be produced/distributed by the
same licensee/partner companies who manufacture the zinc nitrate fertilizer solution and
unleached crumb rubber for AgBio. The potting mix amendment will be marketed by AgBio.
Literature cited:
Arrandale, T. 1992. Old tires, new solutions. Governing 5:22-23.
Bowman, D.C., R.Y. Evans, and L.L. Dodge. 1994. Growth of chrysanthemum with ground
automobile tire used as a container soil amendment. HortScience 29:774-776.
Chaney, R.L., J.B. Munns and H.M. Cathey. 1980. Effectiveness of digested sewage sludge compost
in supplying nutrients for soilless potting media. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 105:485-492.
Davidson, H., R. Mecklenburg, and C. Peterson. 1988. Nursery management: Administration and
culture, 2nd ed. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Gogue, G.J. and K.C. Sanderson. 1975. Municipal compost as a medium amendment for
chrysanthemum culture. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 100:213-216.
Jones, J.B., Jr., B. Wolf, and H.A. Mills. 1991. Plant analysis handbook: A practical sampling,
preparation, analysis, and interpretation guide. Micro-Macro Publishing, Inc., Athens, Ga.
Neel, P.L., E.O. Burt, P. Busey and G.H. Snyder. 1978. Sod production in shallow beds of waste
materials. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 103:549-553.
Nelson, P.V. 1985. Greenhouse operation and management, third edition. PrenticeHall, Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey.
Newman, S.E., M.J. Roll, and R.J. Harkrader. 1999. A naturally occurring compound for controlling
powdery mildew of greenhouse roses. HortScience. 34:686-689.
Roff, W. J., J. R. Scott and J. Pacitti. 1971. Handbook of common polymers, fibres, films, plastics
and rubbers. The Chemical Rubber Co. Press., Cleveland, Ohio.
Rogers, J., T. Vanini, and M. Venlola. 1994. Shredded tire , a new soil amendment. Ground Maint.
29:42-49.
Sah, R.N. and R.O. Miller 1992. Spontaneous reaction for acid dissolution of biological tissue in
closed vessels. Anal. Chem. 64:230-233.
Sanderson, K. C. and W. C. Martin, Jr. 1974. Performance of woody ornamentals in municipal
compost medium under nine fertilizer regimes. HortScience 9:242-243.
Soltanpour, P.N. and A.P. Schwab. 1977. An new soil test method for simultaneous extraction of
macro- and micro-nutrients in alkaline soils. Comm. Soil Sci. Plant Anal.. 8:195-207.
Tarricone, P. 1993. Recycled roads. Civil Engineering 63:46-49.
Taylor, R.D., E.M. Smith, D.J. Beattie, G.P. Pealer. 1990. Requirements and costs of establishing
a three-acre herbaceous perennial container nursery. Southern Cooperative Series Bulletin,
354.
Ward, C. Y. 1973. Amending soybean soil, sport turf and golf greens with ground rubber. Progress
report to U.S. Rubber Reclaiming Company. Miss. Agri. and For. Expt Sta.
Zhao, X. 1995. Shredded Tire Rubber as a Container Medium for Greenhouse-Grown Plants. MS
Thesis, Mississippi State University.