Indiana agency invests in end markets.

To help spur practical uses for scrap tires generated in the state, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has announced investments of $208,440 in research to be conducted at three state universities.

Funding for the grants comes from the state's Solid Waste Management Fund and matching funds from the recipients, which are:

* Purdue University, Civil Engineering School, Tippecanoe County--$100,000 to study tire-shred mixtures as backfill in highway projects, including over pass walls and road embankments, and $37,500 to assess material and mechanical properties of different tire shred/soil mixtures and to conduct field tests of geotechnical structures built with the mixtures;

* Indiana University and the U.S. Geological Survey, Monroe County, $50,000 to study the effectiveness of shredded tire chips used as aggregate in on-site sewage distribution fields;

* Valparaiso University, Porter County, $20,940 to build a parking lot and driveway with rubber-modified asphalt; and

* Indianapolis, Department of Parks & Recreation, Marion County, $24,850 to resurface two basketball courts and a parking lot with rubber-modified asphalt.

In the past five years IDEM has cleaned up 23 areas where tires were illegally dumped. On average, it costs the agency $1.42 per tire to clean up illegal piles.