Waste tires come from passenger cars, trucks and farm equipment, and are considered no longer viable for use in their current state. In Wisconsin, alone, nearly five million used tires (approximately 50,000 tons) are generated every year. Accordingly, this high volume waste material provides an interesting set of problems for management. At one time, many tires were simply land-filled, but as a result of their shape, gas would fill in the wells of the tire and actually cause them to surface. Tires were banned from Wisconsin landfills on January 1, 1995. This in turn challenged people to find other solutions for alleviating the buildup of large tire piles. Efforts to reuse and recycle tires for a number of different applications have been steadily growing. On a national level, the number of scrap tires that were reused in some fashion rose from 25% in 1990, to 78% in 2001. This is especially significant, given that in that same time frame the number of waste tires produced annually in the United States rose from 240 million to 281 million. A number of interesting applications have developed in the waste tire market to deal with the problem of waste tire management.

Alternative Uses for Waste Tires:

Major Applications:

Tire-derived Fuel:

• TDF (tire-derived fuel) can be burned in place of coal; it has a lower sulfur emission than many forms of coal. It has been used in cement kilns, pulp and paper mill boilers, utility and industrial boilers among others.
• Recent efforts to convert used tires into crude oil and carbon black are being explored (this technology has existed for over a decade, and only recently is gaining attention again.)

Ground Rubber Applications:

• Playground equipment and playground substrate (ground cover).
• Artificial turf supplemental support
• Park benches
• Doormats
• Clothes

Civil Engineering Products:

• Use in leachate collection systems in place of river rock for septic systems
• Daily landfill cover (in the form of shredded tires)
• Artificial reefs
• Clean fill for road embankments
• Road bed support
• Rubber modified asphalt

 Tire Pile Dangers

Often large numbers of tires are accumulated in tire piles. Tire piles present a number of potential dangers. Perhaps the greatest immediate danger is the potential for massive tire pile fires that in turn can lead to a number of environmental problems. First, tire piles can burn for months at a time because of their high fuel content. This leads to ground contamination, in which soils can be degraded and water supplies contaminated. Furthermore the danger of the tires burning out of control is in itself a danger to nearby communities. The potential for local air pollution is also a concern from a smoldering tire pile fire.

The shape of tires allow for the collection of water, which stagnates and can provide excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes. This phenomenon is fairly widely accepted among entomologists as contributing to mosquito population growth. However, a number of breeding locations exist for various mosquitoes, and they are not limited to tire piles. With this said, a number of mosquitoes do frequently use tires as breeding grounds. Culex pipiens is sometimes even referred to as the "tire pile mosquito" because of its frequent use of this habitat type. A number of other mosquito species (of which several are known disease vectors) use this water source, and should provide ample encouragement for the removal of large tire piles.  

Tire Piles and West Nile Virus

Tires are often implicated as breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The encephalitis scare back in the early nineties encouraged people to act on the issue of tire pile reduction. This was effectively carried out by the implementation of a two tier abatement program aimed at supporting processors and end markets. The removal of the incentive program removed the minor players leaving only the major processors to deal with the challenge of waste tire reduction in Wisconsin. How quickly we forget the scare of encephalitis, until now, when a new threat of encephalitis has reached North America: West Nile Virus.

What you can I do to reduce tire waste?

• Keep your tires properly inflated to reduce wear and premature tire replacement.
• Rotate and balance your tires on a regular basis (every 4,000 to 7500 miles), to avoid uneven wear that can require tire replacement.
• Encourage local officials to actively work to reduce tire piles.
• Support the waste tire recycling market by purchasing products made with recycled tire rubber.