Use of waste tyre bales to construct a flood embankment

A case study in the use of tyre bales in the design of a UK flood embankment is presented and the legal, technical and environmental issues are briefly discussed. A few major risks in the use of tyre bales in a flood prevention embankment—such as possible buoyancy of the tyre bale under water, possible piping of underlying soil and overlying capping soils due to their extremely high permeability, possible rebound of the bales upon release or deterioration of metal ties, release of unacceptable leachate to the controlled water from old tyres—were taken into consideration in the design stage and necessary steps and precautions were adopted. The use of tyre bales on the project provided a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable solution and has potentially paved the way for other applications. The pilot project scheme, which is now complete, has used around 1 million tyres, which is approximately 10% of the total number of tyres that would normally go to landfill in any one year in the UK.