Back to Main | Back to Introduction

Statistics of Waste Tires

1. The number of scrap tire generated annually (1996,1998)
2. The number of scrap tire stockpiled
3. The contents of scrap tires
4. Typical tire compositions
5. Densities of Shredded and Whole Tires
6. Scrap Tire in The Municipal Solid Waste Stream (MSW)
1. Number of scrap tire generated annually (1996,1998)1),2),3)
 
The Number of Tires Millions/Year 
USA
266(*270)
Japan
102
France
44.3
Germany
28.2
G.Britain
23.4
Canada
20
Australia
17
Italy
12.1
*Data in 1998
2. The number of scrap tire stockpiled 1),3)
USA (1996) : 800 million
USA (1998) : 500 million

Europe (1990) : 161 million


3. The contents of scrap tires (number %) 3)

Passenger tire (PS tire) : 84 %
Truck and bus tire (TB tire) : 15 %
Off the road, Air plane and Heavy equipment tire (OR/AP tire) : 1 %
     The weight range of the TB tire : 40 - 10,000 lb.
     The average weight of PS tire : 20 lb.
* Scrap tire usually has 90.% of original weight. 4)


4. Typical tire compositions (wt%) 5)

Rubber : 85 %
Steel : 12 %
Fiber : 3 %
    Average life : 80000 km (50000 km)6)
* Today's radial tire lasts twice as long as the bias, 20 years ago.
    Rubber particles decomposed naturally over 27 years. 7)
    Tire decomposed naturally over 80 years. 8)

   See Also : Anatomy of Tire
 

5. Densities of Shredded and Whole Tires3)

 
APPROXIMATE DENSITIES
LOOSELY PACKED   DENSELY PACKED
100/10Yd3 
(app. 200 lbs/yd3)
WHOLE TIRES
(PASSENGER/LIGHT TRUCK)
500/10Yd3
(app. 1000 lbs/yd3)
550-600 lbs/yd3 single pass 1220-1,300 lbs/yd3
850-950 lbs/yd3 2" shred 1,350-1,450 lbs/yd3
1,000-1,100 lbs/yd3 1 1/2" shred 1,500-1,600 lbs/yd3
10 MESH - 29 lbs/ft3
20 MESH - 28 lbs/ft3
30 MESH - 28 lbs/ft3
40 MESH - 27 lbs/ft3
80 MESH - 25-26 lbs/ft3


6. Scrap Tire in The Municipal Solid Waste Stream (MSW in 1996) 9)

 
Generated (mil. tons/year)
Percent Occuping in Total MSW (wt%)
 Recovered Rate (wt%)
Paper and Paperboard
79.93
38.1
40.8
Glass
12.35
5.9
35.7
Plastics
19.76
9.4
5.4
Aluminum
2.98
1.4
34.2
Steel
11.83
5.6
38.0
Tire
3.17 (266 mil. tires)
1.6
18.6

 

References

  1. North American Recycled Rubber Association
  2. Scrap Tire News Online
  3. Scrap Tire Management Council  Data in 1996,  Data in 1998
  4. Recyclink
  5. International Tire and Rubber Association
  6. Mariette DiChristina, Mired in tires. (junk tires) Popular Science, Oct. 1994 v245 n4 p62(4)
  7. Guus T. G. Keursten and Pieter H. Groevelt, Biodegradation of rubber particles in soil, Biodegradation 7 p329, 1996
  8. The Economist, August 11, 1990 v316 n7667 p70(1)
  9. Municipal Solid Waste Factbook, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, August 1, 1997
Back to Top  |  Go to Next