WASHINGTON (Dec. 5) — About 87 percent of the nearly 300 million scrap tires generated in the U.S. in 2005 found some end-use market, according to "Scrap Tire Markets in the United States," a new report from the Rubber Manufacturers Association.
This compares with only an 11-percent recycling rate in 1990, the first year the RMA measured the scrap tire market. Of the 259 million recycled tires in 2005, the majority — 155 million — went for tire-derived fuel, the association said. Civil engineering was the second-biggest market with 49 million tires, followed by ground rubber applications with 38 million.
The number of stockpiled scrap tires, an estimated 1 billion in 1990, shrank to 188 million in 2005, with the largest piles concentrated in seven states — New York, Alabama, Texas, Connecticut, Michigan, Colorado and Pennsylvania.