Hello,

My family and I are about to embark on our dream, well probably was just my dream but everyone is on board so now its our dream, of building an earthship house.  Now I will tell you I know this is no small undertaking.   
Here is my problem, I was very attracted to this because of the use of used tires that were going to be so "easy to get".  Well they are not.   I live in Oklahoma and so far no one will let me have any.  They say it is state law they will get in trouble.   I said well what if you just show where they went and what they being used for......and still no.  Ok so I know it is possible because of a Lady that lives near Gene Autry Ok. She and her husband built their own house and got all 3000 of the tires for free.  Now I have not been able to contact her by e mail try though I have, to find out just how she got those tires for free.........and she does state that in an interview I saw on line.   Ok so any suggestions or maybe I am just not wording it right, or is there something I can tell them that does make it ok for them to give me tires. 

your help is greatly appreciated.

Storage of scrap tires in whole-tire form are both a fire hazard and mosquito breeding farm when pile up above grade. They currently have value as boiler fuel, chemical raw material and many other uses, and are usually shredded prior to recycling to save space for transport, and eliminate the water-pooling/mosquito issue. Shredded tire-as-fuel has been around at least since the 1970s, and has been used to "clean up" emissions in some biomass boiler plants in agricultural areas. The days of "free tires" have gone by the wayside, now that mandatory recycling is the law in OK (as in many states.) The OK state government collects fees, and has verification programs to track what happens to recycled tires. Try to get a list of tire recyclers in OK- you may have to fill out a bunch paperwork (and pay for the tires) to do it completely legally & above board, but there liklely IS a way to do it. You probably have to guarantee they will be stored in a manner that controls their fire hazard & rain retention aspects prior to use, not just a pyramid of tires next to the construction site.

Maybe you can gleen some information from this site: http://www.earthshipfloridaproject.com/    I had been asked to supply steel SIPs on the project but last I heard they had some type of poured concrete beam problem.

Project has been idle for a couple months