| Despite the best efforts of modern science, your | | | | and literally 100s of applications have been |
| car tires rarely last as long as you keep your car. | | | | developed for recycling old car tires. |
| At some time, they will wear out or become | | | | Almost no one changes their own tires anymore |
| damaged and you will have to replace them. Many | | | | and the recycling of old tires is done by |
| years ago, most people changed their own tires. | | | | professionals who generally do so in an |
| Back then, old tires were a recycling nightmare. | | | | environmentally safe way. When you take your |
| They were almost universally banned from city | | | | car in to have the tires changed at the local |
| dumps and landfills. Having no other options | | | | garage or tire shop there is almost always |
| available many people would simply chuck their old | | | | provision for taking your old tires for recycling. |
| tires into a roadside ditch at night when no one | | | | Approximately 1 in 4 of those old tires is |
| was looking. Those few companies that were | | | | retreaded and used again on another automobile |
| willing to take your old tires often would end up | | | | somewhere. In many parts of the world old tires |
| burning them. Burning tires, however, is an | | | | are ground up and used to make rubberized |
| environmental disaster in almost every sense of | | | | asphalt for highways or shredded and used as a |
| the word. Arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead, | | | | base for gravel roads or as a sand or gravel |
| beryllium, chromium and other toxic and | | | | substitute in some other road construction |
| carcinogenic substances and dioxins are released | | | | application. Some old tires are chopped up and |
| into the air when a car tire is burned. Cardiac | | | | used as part of the surface for indoor tennis |
| disease and respiratory problems can be caused | | | | courts or other indoor sports playing fields. For |
| by the metal particles released from a burning tire | | | | many applications, recycling old tire rubber is |
| as well. Plus the natural resources that go into | | | | cheaper than collecting and processing new rubber. |
| making a tire go to waste if the tire is burned. | | | | The burning of tires has not completely |
| Today all of that has changed. It had to change | | | | disappeared but it has improved to the point |
| there really were no other options. It is estimated | | | | where it is both environmentally safe and it |
| that 1.3 billion tires are sold every year and more | | | | recycles the raw materials. By using a process |
| than two thirds of those tires replace old worn | | | | called pyrolysis, which burns the tires in a reduced |
| out tires. That means that almost 1 billion tires | | | | air environment or vacuum, the raw materials are |
| worldwide are discarded annually. 20 years ago | | | | recovered and recycled. A typical car passenger |
| only 10 percent of all discarded tires were | | | | tire will yield one kilogram of steel, four liters of oil, |
| recycled but today more than 80 percent make it | | | | almost four kilograms of carbon and 850 liters of |
| to a recycling facility. Recycling the material in old | | | | reusable combustible gas as a result of this |
| tires is a good idea no matter how you look at it | | | | recycling process. |