Fast Facts
Test Your Knowledge about Tire Recycling
* 266 million non-retreadable and non-repairable tires were discarded by Americans in 1996. That’s nearly one scrap tire per person in the United States.
* Unlike aluminum cans, which can be re-made completely from recycled aluminum, new tires cannot be composed entirely of recycled rubber.
* Approximately 700 million to 850 million scrap tires occupy stockpiles in the United States. Recycling eliminates new, illegal tire stockpiles and, eventually, will reduce existing sites.
* Scrap tires are used as a fuel in the cement, pulp and paper industries, and for civil engineering applications, such as fill material for construction projects.
* The growing crumb rubber market expanded from 4 million scrap tires in 1994 to 12 million in 1996. Crumb rubber is made by shredding the rubber from scrap tires into pea-sized to finely ground pieces.
* The running track at the White House is composed of a crumb rubber mix.
Source: R.O.T.A.T.E., a division of Sears Auto Center
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