Scrap tire generation

Illinois Power and Waste Recovery, Inc. (WRI), the largest producer of IDE in the United States, entered into an agreement under which WRI will supply I DE to Illinois Power s Baldwin station. Beginning in late 1994, about 3% of the coal was replaced with tires. This requires 70,000 tons of I DE per year, or the equivalent of seven million passenger tires, and represents - 60% of the scrap tires generated in Illinois each year. 

The two technologies with the most potential for using a major portion of scrap tires generated each year, and actually reducing the tire stockpiles, are pavements with rubber additives and combustion for energy generation. 

Crumb Rubber in Rubber and Plastic Products. Crumb rubber may be incorporated into rubber sheet and molded products such as floor mats, vehicle mud guards, and carpet padding or into plastic products, including plastic floor mats and adhesives. Additional uses that have contributed to the expansion of this market over the last three years are rubber play surfaces, tracks and athletic surfaces, and garbage cans. In 1987 about 2.3 million tires (1 percent) were utilized in this manner. 1990 estimates have risen to 8.6 million tires per year, or 3 percent of the scrap tires generated that year. 

In the U.S. there are approximately 240 active cement kilns (52). Of these, there are 50 precalciner/preheater kilns built since 1971, which would be the kilns most likely to burn tdf. However, about 20 percent of these kilns are at locations, such as the southeast Gulf coast, where they can probably obtain petroleum coke at a lower price than tdf, and hence they would not be likely tdf buyers. The remainder could become tdf users if the economics and the environmental permitting procedures were favorable. If 40 cement plants each used the equivalent of 2 million tires per year, there could conceivably be a national usage of 80 million tires per year, or one third of the annual number of scrap tires generated. 

Approximately 8 to 11 percent of the scrap tires generated annually (approximately 192,000 to 264,000 tons/year) are estimated to be burned for fuel.1,2 Section 1.2 below discusses the advantage and disadvantages of tires as fuel. 

Table 1-1. Scrap Tire Generation (millions of tires per year)...

The number of scrap tires generated annually is about 281 million.f Passenger tires account for 84% of the tires scrapped in a year, while light and heavy trucks contribute 15%, and the remaining 1% is generated from aircraft, heavy equipment, and off-road tires. 

Scrap tires (ST) - About 7% of the 250 million scrap tires generated annually are exported to foreign conntries, 8% are recycled into new products, and roughly 40% are used as tire-derived fuel, either in whole or chipped form... 

TABLE 15.1 2009 US Scrap Tire Generation (US Scrap Tire Markets, 200 ... 

RMA changed the basis for reporting scrap tire generated annually from state-provided data in 2005-2007 to a calculation of replacement market tires sold and vehicles scrapped In 2009. J... 

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