What Happens to Scrap Tires?

Keeping old tires out of landfills or scrap tire piles is no easy thing, but solid progress has been made over the years. To illustrate: Nearly 78% of the 281 million tires scrapped here in 2001 were recycled, reused, or recovered. This compares to a mere 11% of the nation's scrapped tires that were reused, recycled, or recovered in 1990.

Dedicated efforts have brought us to this point. But so have new ways of using old tires, such as grinding up the rubber and using it as an ingredient in asphalt or as groundcover on playgrounds. Old tires are also used as fuel for cement kilns, pulp and paper mills, and boilers.

Many automakers have active tire recycling efforts in place. Ford Motor Co., for example, has worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S Department of Transportation, and other organizations to fund more than 130 projects that have used 20 million pounds of "crumb" rubber. The rubber, created from tires sourced at Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealers, has been used for everything from auto parts and sports arena flooring to the surfaces of roads, riding arenas, and athletic fields. 

Progress in scrap tire reuse is shown in the graph below, courtesy of the U.S Rubber Manufacturers Association.