The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA), the trade association for tire manufacturers that produce tires in the U.S., is the American counterpart of the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada.  The USTMA has 12 member companies that operate 56 tire-related manufacturing facilities in 17 states and generate over $27 billion in annual sales.

The USTMA works with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its other stakeholders to develop markets, reduce scrap tire stockpiles, and implement state regulations that foster sustainable scrap tire markets.

According to the USTMA’s 2017 U.S. Scrap Tire Management Summary, over 81 percent of scrap tires were re-used in products such as tire-derived fuel and rubber modified asphalt. In 1991, when the USTMA first started its efforts to re-purpose scrap tires, only one in ten tires was re-used and there were more than one billion scrap tires in stockpiles.  In 2017, there were roughly 60 million tires in stockpiles, a 94 percent decrease.

“Scrap tire management in the U.S. demonstrates an environmental success story – one that not enough people know about,” said Anne Forristall Luke, USTMA President and CEO. “Over the past 30 years, USTMA has worked with state partners to find uses for scrap tires. This success is reflective of the commitment to environmental responsibility from our industry, and we look forward to building on these successes as we work towards our goal of 100 percent of scrap tires reused.”

The USTMA’s scrap tire program will focus on two key areas of growth in the future:  tire-derived fuel and rubber modified asphalt. Efforts will include increasing awareness of the benefits of both products.

• Tire-derived fuel is used for industrial purposes (cement kilns, pulp and paper mills and electric utility boilers) and in 2017 consumed about 106 million U.S. scrap tires, representing 43% of the end markets reported.
  
• Rubber modified asphalt consumed over 7 million U.S. scrap tires in 2017, providing a cost effective and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional road paving materials.
  

Molded and extruded products, such as mats, garbage cans, flooring and landscaping, and playground mulch were top re-use applications in the 2017 ground rubber market.

Want more information?

For further information, see the USTMA news article “U.S. SCRAP TIRE MANAGEMENT: AN ENVIORNMENTAL SUCCESS STORY.”

For details on Canada’s end markets from scrap tire rubber, see the 2017 CATRA Annual Report.