Tire Uses

This inventory is not exhaustive but it serves to illustrate the innumerable uses for scrap tires. While more than 100 uses are catalogued, scrap tire uses are really only limited by imagination. Some products can be made using whole tire material or ground tire material, and certain generic product categories such as mats can be produced for innumerable particular uses. Uses are grouped in 6 categories for convenience (TDF, Ground Rubber, Civil Engineering, Export, Other and OTR). These uses typically require engineering or design expertise to implement. Information is also appended on recycling tire component materials (steel, fabric) and some related rubber materials (Airline tires, inner tubes, conveyors).

Some potential future uses such as a carbon source in solid rocket fuel or in new battery configurations or in 3D printing substrate are not commercially proven but are listed.

  • Tire Derived Fuel (TDF) – 7 uses

  • Ground Rubber – 42 uses 

  • Civil Engineering – 25 uses

  • Export – 2 uses

  • Other Miscellaneous Uses – 24 uses

  • Off The Road (OTRs) – 4 uses

  • Fabric – 2 uses

  • Steel – 1 use

  • Airline Tires – 1 use

  • Butyl Inner Tube Scrap – 2 uses

  • Sheet Rubber (from roofing or conveyor belts) – 8 uses

  • Potential Future Uses (in research stage, or merely ideas) – 7 uses

For the complete list, please click HERE

More Information

Special thanks to the California Tire-Derived Product Guide and the Scrap Tire and Rubber Users Directory in addition to my own observations and many other sources in the development of this compilation. Note that permits may be required for some uses. – John Sheerin, STREF Vice President