Waste Tire and TDF Cost Considerations

Sources desiring to bum tires may obtain them in several ways. Whole tires can be obtained from two basic sources. First, tires can come from the flow that is, from retail businesses collecting old tires on a daily basis. This includes tire manufacturers, tire retail stores, and tire collectors, sometimes called tire jockeys. Tire jockeys cull the tires they collect for those that can be reused or retreaded, and then sell the remainder. Second, tires can 

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Energy required to produce smaller sizes of rubber pieces increases exponentially.7 For example, about 40 Btu s are required to produce one pound of 6-inch TOF, while 750 Btu s are required to produce a pound of 1-inch TDF.7 From a general cost perspective, 2-inch TDF, wire-in TDF, can cost as little as 20/ton, whereas crumb rubber (wire-free, from 20-30 mesh) averages 160/ton.7 Capital costs, of course, vary according to capacity. A shredder that can chip 100 tires/hr into 2-inch TDF costs about 50,000 larger machines (1000 tires/hr capacity) can cost 500,000.7 

Haulers may be paid from 0.35 to 5.00 to dispose of whole tires.1 In general, the cost to landfill whole tires is double the cost to landfill mixed munic -jal solid waste. 

One TOF supplier has found that pulp and paper mills are the most profitable (i.e., purchase the most expensive type of TDF) type of customer, followed by cement plants and utility boilers.8 Pulp and paper mills pay a higher price for TDF for several reasons. First, the pulp and paper mills demand a higher quality of shredded tire that is, tires that are clean and have all the metal removed.8 Second, they do not have the fuel-buying power that a utility might have thus, tires provide a proportionally larger economic incentive for them.8 One pulp and paper mill was paying approximately 39 and 43/ton for TDF in 1990 and in part of 1991, respectively.9 

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