Tires

Why Recycle used tires?

Rubber does not break down very quickly. Because of this, landfills are not the optimal ending point for rubber products. Also, tires take up a lot of room in landfills because they are difficult to compact. In fact, most landfills will no longer take whole tires. Some tires are ground up and discarded in landfills reducing the amount of space required in a landfill. However, rubber still takes a long time to break down.

Another problem associated with just throwing tires away is that tires that are disposed of in landfills are a fire hazard. If tire piles catch on fire it is very difficult to extinguish them because of the heat and smoke produced. These fires can cause environmental damage. If the fires are extinguished with water or foam it may make water and soil pollution even worse than letting the tires burn themselves out. Therefore, tires that are not properly disposed of can be a hazard.

What is a tire made of?

The Rubber Manufacturers Association lists the typical components found in a tire²: 

• Synthetic Rubber
• Natural Rubber
• Sulfur and sulfur compounds
• Silica
• Phenolic resin
• Oil: aromatic, naphthenic, paraffinic
• Fabric: Polyester, Nylon, Etc.
• Petroleum waxes
• Pigments: zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, etc.
• Carbon black
• Fatty acids
• Inert materials
• Steel Wire

Give Tires a New Life!

Crumb Rubber

Crumb rubber is the rubber that results from a tire when the steel, fibre and other contaminants are removed from a tire and the tire is shredded. In North America, crumb rubber is commonly used as rubber modified asphalt (RMA), playground or landscaping mulch, athletic surfaces, molded products, devulcanized or surface modified rubber, plastic/rubber blends and construction uses.

Scrap tires can be used as a fuel source, as they give off as much energy as oil and 25% more energy than coal.  This is called tire derived fuel (TDF).  The US EPA prefers that we reduce, reuse, or recycle tires before using them for TDF.

For an overview of the tire recycling process and the uses of scrap tires, view the online brochure of the Canadian Association of Tire Recycling Agencies.