As a result, scrap tire stockpiles have fallen from more than 1 billion in 1990 to 188 million last year.
“Tire manufacturers have been working hard for 16 years to promote environmentally and economically sound solutions to reduce scrap tire waste,” said Michael Blumenthal, RMA’s senior technical director. “Additionally, states’ scrap tire cleanup laws and regulations and market development efforts have substantially reduced the nation’s scrap tire piles.”
RMA’s report, based upon a comprehensive survey of state scrap tire and solid waste officials and industry participants, says that 259 million of 299 million scrap tires generated in 2005 went to an end-use market.
The largest markets for scrap tires include ground rubber, used for athletic and recreational surfaces, rubber-modified asphalt, carpet underlay, flooring material, dock bumpers and railroad crossing blocks; civil engineering projects like road and landfill construction, septic tank leach fields and other construction applications; and tire derived fuel for cement kilns, electric utilities and pulp and paper mills.
RMA said that of the remaining stockpiles of scrap tires, 85% are concentrated in seven states: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Alabama and New York have recently begun efforts to cleanup existing stockpiles.
