Old tires could be used to pep up turf.

• Position: Recycling - Brief Article

If anyone is wondering what to do with millions of recalled tires, a University of Florida, Gainesville, researcher has a suggestion: Grind them up and spread them on athletic fields and golf courses. Grady Miller, an assistant professor in the school's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, maintains that ground-up tires, also known as crumb rubber, could help increase the durability of turf used in high-traffic applications.

"We want to prevent the kind of damage people can cause to turf-grass," he explains. "Turf can be stripped out by cleats in the goals and corner-kick areas of soccer fields and between the hash marks on football fields. For golf courses, it's primarily where carts enter and exit near greens and tees."

Miller is trying the rubber product on test plots of grass on the university's campus, a Gainesville golf course, and several area athletic fields. In one method, the crumb rubber--and two other compounds being evaluated--are spread evenly over the top of grass, a process known as top-dressing. In another, called aerification, researchers punch small holes in the ground and fill them with the test material. Eventually, the products work their way down into the soil layers, where they may deliver the strongest protective benefit.

He reports that, after more than a year of study, the crumb rubber does seem to protect grass to some degree. While more research is needed to assess that protection, the...