Top 4 Reasons for Tire Recycling

tire recycling

What Would Happen If We Didn’t Recycle Old Tires?

Recycling old tires has become a widely recognized practical solution to address the problems discarded rubber tires bring with them. The Tire Recycling Act was passed in 1989. It paved the way for a dramatic improvement in the amount of scrap tires being dumped, as people found ways to repurpose them. What would happen if we didn’t have the Tire Recycling Act, or if people didn’t follow it?

Landfills will reach choking capacity

Old tires can fill up landfills in a short amount of time. Around 300 million scrap tires are discarded yearly in the USA alone. Since whole tires take up as much as 75% void space in a landfill, there would soon be not enough landfills to accommodate old tires.  If left unchecked, serious spatial and environmental issues can spread very quickly.

Spread of disease and pests

Tires that are exposed to the elements can get filled up with rainwater, allowing mosquitoes and other insects to breed in them. Rodents can live in tires that have piled up in ravines, creeks, and other sites where they are practically undisturbed.

Contaminated soil, water, and air

Landfills often rely on liners to keep contaminants from spilling over to soil, air, and water. Since tires are made to be durable and last virtually forever, they can trap methane gas which will bubble to the surface and make its way to water supplies, vegetation, and the very air we breathe.

Lack of a sustainable (and creative) lifestyle

Repurposing can spark creativity and innovation. So many practical solutions have sprung from the need to recycle old tires. Rubber mulch as infill is one of these great ideas. Rubberized asphalt concrete has so far been a successful civil engineering application. As for DIY tire repurposing projects, many unique suggestions can be found online: from rubber planters, rubber tire “ottoman” and other furniture, rubber tire playgrounds, and other crafty ideas that will keep creative juices flowing.

California and many other states have formed tire recycling programs with zero-waste goals for discarded tires. With cooperation from their local government, constituents, and industry leaders, other practical solutions can be found to keep tire waste to a manageable level.



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More Than Just Rubber Mulch


rubber mulch and outdoor living products

Rubber Mulch and More

Most people know that Everlast Rubber Mulch was the original landscape rubber mulch product and that quality has been our hallmark from the beginning.  Utilizing high heat driers and providing a truly no bleed rubber mulch product in a variety of colors for over a decade.  Our lawn and garden experience goes back much further though, and our eye for quality products comes from hand picking plant material for our nursery from some of the finest growers in the U.S.

Today we offer a huge selection of quality products to enhance your outdoor living experience this spring.

Why do we pay for tire disposal when whole tires are turned into rubber mulch?

Tire Recycling and Rubber Mulch

Remeber When the Best Thing to Do With a Tire Was Make a Tire Swing?

We often receive calls from individuals and businesses that have a large amount of tires. People generally call with the hope that they can sell us their tires for rubber mulch. Sometimes, people buy property and discover tires on the property or in a storage unit that they have purchased or rented. Tires are by the very nature very tough, just think of what they do for us every day running down the highway at high speeds!

Tipping fees, or the fees you pay to discard tires, support multiple things. When people illegally dump tires often the state is responsible for cleaning up the dump sites. Due to the heavy equipment and labor needed to retrieve the tires, liability insurance, and transportation costs the clean up costs can be quite expensive. The state uses part of the money to cover illegal tire sites which can pose a public health problem. A small portion of the fees paid at your local tire store go to cover the store’s administrative costs in accounting to the state or other enforcement agency. The balance of the fees help cover the processing costs of grinding the tires. Remember that the tires have to be picked up, stacked on a truck by hand, and transported by large trucks requiring a lot of fuel.

Grinding tires is a very expensive operation. Equipment is extremely heavy duty and is very expensive. Rubber, during the grinding process is very abrasive and wears the internal components of the machines quickly. Tire grinders are typically electric or diesel and require a tremendous amount of either resulting in enormous costs. If the grinding operation is equipped they may be able to recycle all of the material, if not there is a disposal cost of the unwanted material. The good material has to be hauled to a manufacturer who must be willing to take non-virgin material or in other words recycled material. Unfortunately, the value of the rubber is not large enough to sustain the operation and bankruptcies with tire grinding operations are common. Therefore, tipping or disposal fees, are required to insure that tire recycling operators can continue to operate.
For more information on the benefits of rubber mulch and other products made from recycled tires enjoy our site.