An Aerial View of a Tire Scrap Yard
What do tire companies do with their old, unusable tires? I have never really thought about this until now. Well, when tires get worn down and can no longer be used, they get thrown into a tire scrap yard where they get recycled. These tires are then used for several purposes, ensuring they do not remain as fixed waste.
The image above is of a landfill. It may make you wonder how many tires there are in it, but considering the U.S. disposes of over 270 million tire scraps yearly, the one above is just brushing the surface: less than .1%. Most old tires are used as fuels or in making ground crumb rubber; others are used in civil engineering projects by landfills.