Annually in New Zealand, 5 million end-of-life (ELT) tyres are disposed of through landfill, stockpiles, illegally disposed of or are otherwise unaccounted for, giving rise to piles of waste tyres that do not readily degrade. Currently, no national regulations are in place in New Zealand to manage ELT recycling, and with their ever-growing volume, environmental and socio-economic concerns are urging the reuse of ELTs through large-scale recycling engineering projects. A multi-disciplinary joint research project by researchers of the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd (ESR) and the University of Canterbury, proposes to recycle ELTs (in the form of granulated tyre rubber) mixed with gravelly soils and concrete to develop cost-effective seismic-isolation foundation systems for low-rise buildings for residential housing in New Zealand. While the introduction of new or alternative (recycled waste) materials in building foundations may have benefits in terms of cost reductions and increased seismic resilience, it is essential to ensure that such innovations do not result in long-term negative environmental impacts. Tyre rubber itself can be considered inert under ambient foundation conditions; however, additives used in the manufacture of tyres are potentially harmful to the environment and the steel fibres within the tyres can leach heavy metals. In this paper, a sustainable way to recycle ELTs in eco-friendly construction materials to building low-rise residential housing with enhanced seismic resilience is briefly introduced, the key environmental implications associated with the reuse of ELTs in foundations and the environmental laboratory tests that will be conducted to identify and quantify the potential for soil and/or groundwater contamination from the leaching of contaminants from ELTs will be described and discussed. The results of this research will provide an effective method to reduce environmental hazards and support decision making processes around the recycling of ELTs associated with stockpiling and illegal disposal.