The city of Thousand Oaks has been recommended to receive $113,250 from the California Integrated Waste Management Board to help increase the reuse of old tires in roadway paving projects.

The board has a $1.7 grant to allocation to city and county offices. Most of the funds will help pave streets in Southern California cities. The rest of the money approved this month will also assist a number of north state jurisdictions with their paving projects.

California produces more than 40 million waste tires annually. Although about 75 percent of this amount is recycled, the state deals with about 10 million surplus tires annually. The majority of these tires end up in landfills and some go to illegal stockpiles.

Over the past few years, California has used nearly 10 million waste tires in rubberized asphalt concrete (RAC) paving projects, saving them from disposal.

Rubberized roads have been successfully used in street paving projects by state and local transportation agencies throughout California. Made by blending

round-up waste tire carcasses with asphalt and then applying the mix to road surfaces, a 2-inch thick layer of RAC can save as much as $20,000 per lane mile compared to a 4-inch thick layer of conventional asphalt, and use more than 2,000 waste tires over that distance.

RAC provides a long-lasting surface and superior wet weather traction, resists cracking, retains its original color so that road markings are clearly visible, can significantly reduce traffic noise and can reduce the number of illegal waste tire dumpsites in the state.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board is the state's leading authority on recycling and waste reduction. It promotes a zero waste California in partnership with local government, industry and the public. This means reducing waste whenever possible, promoting the management of all materials to their best use and protecting public health and safety and the environment.

For more information about the board, go online to www.ciwmb.ca.gov.