Burning tires? Oh that sounds like a really fine idea.

TICONDEROGA, N.Y. -- Twin screws will begin to turn in a rented metal hopper sometime Monday, pulling little nuggets of ground-up vehicle tires onto a conveyor belt at the International Paper Co. mill beside Lake Champlain.

The tire chips will be mixed with bark and wood chips. Pneumatic tubes will suck the mixed fuel to the top of the plant's six-story powerhouse, where the fuel will be blown into the boiler. The chips will ignite and burn during the fall toward the grates far below.

International Paper's long-planned, long-disputed test of used-tire fuel will have begun.