Auto Recycler Goes Full Circle With TDA

President of Maritime Auto Parts Andrew MacDonald and his wife Katie are taking recycled tires to a new level—ground-level, that is

When building their new commercial property in Truro, Nova Scotia, the MacDonalds learned of tire derived aggregate (TDA) and its  construction applications. As an advocate for the circular economy, MacDonald couldn’t say no to the idea—especially after he learned more about TDA’s benefits.

From Dr. Hany El Naggar, associate professor and graduate studies coordinator with the Department of Civil and Resource Engineering at Dalhousie University, he learned that Nova Scotia has a lot of soft soils that you cannot readily build on because they are too weak to support infrastructure. But when you use a TDA-soil mixture for the backfill, you have something that is lightweight but significantly reinforces the strength of the foundation soil.

From Divert Nova Scotia, he learned that since 1996, the agency has been managing the processing and recycling of Nova Scotia’s scrap tires. According to the organization more than one million used tires are diverted from the province’s landfills every year and 70 percent of those go to Halifax C&D Recycling to be recycled into a tire-derived aggregate (TDA) for construction of engineering applications.

“They sell different TDA varieties depending on your application,” Andrew said. “I did my homework, learned about the adhesion properties, how lightweight it is compared to gravel, and I was sold.”

“I’m sure some of my tires are under there somewhere.”

Source: collisionrepairmag.com

© Scrap Tire News, March 2022