Scrap tire, recycling trends leading the way for 2025

For the first time in two years, the tire industry has an updated understanding of whether the scrap tire landscape is waxing or waning.

Or does it?

The release of the biennial Scrap Tire Management Report in October by the U.S. Tire Manufacturer's Association demonstrated some positive, some negative and a few ambiguous trends surrounding ELTs in 2023.

Specifically, the bellwether statistics of previous reports—the percentage of scrap tires that find a second life in an ELT market against the number of overall scrap tires generated—may be somewhat anamolous in this report.

Overall, however, the USTMA expressed "cautious optimism" in the direction of the scrap tire and ELT end markets, especially regarding rubber-modified asphalt usage.

It is an enormous task, even for North America's largest industry groups, to increase the percentage of tires re-used to overall tires generated.

As such, the USTMA, Tire Industry Association and 11 other major players in the scrap tire recycling space on May 15 announced the formation of the Tire Recycling Foundation, a seminal advocacy tool for pushing 100-percent tire circularity.

Myriad other partnerships are forming across the tire recycling space as well, including a wide-ranging partnership between Bridgestone, Versalis and BB&G for tire pyrolysis oil circularity.

Here are five of the top news stories in the scrap tire and recycling spaces over the last year.

Fewer end-of-life tires were generated and a higher percentage of them found ELT markets outside of landfills compared to 2021, according to the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association's 2023 Scrap Tire Report, released Oct. 24.

"I would describe what we are seeing in this report with cautious optimism," said John Sheerin, director of end-of-life tire materials for USTMA. "It is certainly good news to see an increase in recycling and reclamation rates for ELTs."

According to the 2023 report, about 79 percent of ELTs—207 million of 264 million scrap tires generated, or about 3.8 million tons of 4.84 million tons generated—found another life in tire-derived fuel, ground rubber, reclamation or numerous other ELT market avenues.

In 2021, about 71 percent of scrap tires generated were funneled into similar ELT markets.

But these trends, perhaps, don't quite tell the full story for 2023.

The higher percentage of recovery in 2023 was driven by TDF use, an inconsistent analytic since TDF use increases as energy costs increase.

And COVID likely drove down the number of overall scrap tires generated, a trend that is not expected to continue.

TDF retook the top disposition over ground rubber in the 2023 report.

ELTs that were directed to landfills in 2023 were up about 20 percent against 2021 numbers, a function of better reporting from states and collection agencies, Sheerin said.

The advancement of opportunities for scrap tire technologies—specifically by growing rubber-modified asphalt scrap tire end markets—should be at the forefront for the federal government and consumers alike, according to many along the ELT supply chain.

This was a refrain in 2023 when the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association lobbied at the federal level for RMA and tire-derived aggregate uses, and again at the USTMA Recycling Conference in Atlanta in May.

About 73 million scrap tires became ground rubber in 2023—28 percent of the overall ELT disposition market and a 5 percent drop against the ground rubber market in the 2021 report.

However, within ground rubber, RMA use increased by 17 percent over 2021 numbers.

Research completed in recent years by the USTMA and other academic institutions shows that RMA extends pavement life, enhances ride quality and mitigates noise from tires and traffic.

RMA is circular in that it can be stripped and used again.

It continues to gain traction thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act passed in 2022, as roads, highways and airfield surfaces remain some of the most daunting projects.

However, RMA has not been universally adopted (representing only about 12 percent of overall ground rubber disposition), though it is used more widely in California, Kentucky and New York.

Most state highway agencies have little experience using RMA.

With about 944 million illegal tires left to clean up and another 56 million left to recycle, there is no resting on past accomplishments for the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association and the Tire Industry Association.

With the formation of the Tire Recycling Foundation in May, the two groups, along with 11 other major players in the tire recycling space, aim to "incentivize market development and advance federal regulations that foster sustainable scrap tire management."

To drive innovation in ELT disposition end markets, the TRF will secure funding and allocate grants for research, education, intervention and demonstration projects.

The newly established TRF Board of Directors has ambitious research and fundraising initiatives, eyeing a fundraising coffer of $300,000 by 2025 and between $2 million and $3 million by 2026, TIA CEO Dick Gust told Rubber News in Atlanta in May.

Gust said the foundation already has applied for a grant from the U.S. EPA for environmental product declaration and anticipates other grants being sought.

The TRF will be fully operational by 2026, Gust said.

"This is a focused initiative that enhances tire recycling research, infrastructure and technologies. This is indeed an ambitious era as we launch this critical initiative," he said.

ELT projects can require extensive collaborations, as evidenced by the formation of the Tire Recycling Foundation.

The circular use of tire pyrolysis oil in tire manufacturing is no exception.

For close to three years, Bridgestone EMEA; Fatima, Portugal-based Grupo BB&G; and Milan-based Versalis have worked to establish one such partnership, creating a closed-loop ecosystem for recycling ELTs.

The three organizations signed an agreement to establish the partnership Sept. 2.

According to Bridgestone, feedstock ELTs will be pyrolyzed by BB&G, which has a commercial plant in Fatima that became operational July 24.

From BB&G, the captured TPO will be sent to Versalis in San Donato Milanese, which will convert it into a new monomer, "circular elastomers that Bridgestone will use to create a first batch of tires in early 2025," according to the world's second-largest tire maker.

In many ways, the discussion of ELTs as a feedstock for pyrolysis technology has focused on recovered carbon black as the reusable product.

And in many ways, the discussion should be equally focused on the recovered oil—the vastly more circular of the two pyrolysis end products.

While rCB is rarely a one-for-one, drop-in replacement for virgin CB, TPO can be polymerized for use back into tire manufacturing—with no loss in safety or performance parameters.

Indeed, the ELT space counts partnerships as critical to making material circularity and a cleaner environment possible.

But acquisitions can be just as important.

Lancaster, Pa.-based Ecore International, which uses reclaimed rubber materials as feedstock for entirely new, performance-driven surface products, is demonstrating that vertical integration can lead to circularity.

To begin the year, Ecore acquired Newville, Pa.-based Ameritread Remanufactured Tires, which has a network of dealers across the country selling certified, refurbished truck tires.

This acquisition—which gives Ecore access to ELT feedstock—comes on the heels of Ecore's purchase of 360 Tire Recycling Group in April 2023.

For more than 40 years, Ecore has been transforming rubber waste, "upcycling" in excess of 300 million pounds annually into pour-in-place playground, weight room and athletic facility surfaces, as well as mulched and compacted rubber walking trails.

The company has more than 1,500 products in its portfolio, using both recycled flooring and scrap tires as feedstock.

More recently, Ecore was buoyed by an investment from General Atlantic's BeyondNetZero fund, intended to "accelerate its circularity timeline."

Ecore CEO Art Dodge remains an integral piece of the newly formed Tire Recycling Foundation, serving on the Board of Directors with the TRF.

And the company in 2023 launched its TruCircularity program, which allows customers to reduce their CO2 footprints and "close the loop" with flooring products.