The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has announced a grant of $28,800 for the Bledsoe County Board of Education from the state’s Tire Environmental Act Program.
The Bledsoe County Board of Education will provide matching funds of $7,200 and use the grant to install rubber mulch as playground surfaces at all three elementary schools in the district using recycled scrap tires. The project costs $36,000 and provides a sustainable play surface that meets safety requirements to protect the school children.
Tennessee established the Tire Environmental Fund in 2015. Upon the first retail sale of a new motor vehicle to be titled and registered in Tennessee, a flat fee based on the number of a vehicle’s wheels is assessed. The fee goes into the fund, which is used for projects creating or supporting beneficial end uses for waste tires. Since 2015, grantees have been awarded almost $9.2 million, and approximately 7.6 million tires or nearly 82,000 tons of scrap tires have been diverted from landfills.