Resource recovery from used rubber tires

Including car, truck, bus, and airplane tires, 266 million tires were scrapped in the US in 1996 (Scrap Tire Management Council (STMC), 1997). More than three-quarters of these tires were used as fuel, recycled for material applications, or exported. The remainder accumulates in junkyards or landfills where they pose a fire hazard and provide a breeding ground for disease carrying rodents and insects. Using information on scrap tire composition and the current markets using them, we examine the technologies used to recover their value either for energy or as rubber. As the majority of scrap tires are used as fuel, we calculate their life cycle energy budget considering both the energy consumed for tire production and the energy recovered from their use as fuel. Based on our findings, we draw some preliminary conclusions on how to maximize value recovery from this ubiquitous artifact of industrial societies. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.