How many tires are used in the US per year?

Answer 1

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans disposed of 290 million tires in 2003. Of these, almost 100 million were recycled into new products and 130 million were processed into tire-derived fuel (TDF).

The EPA states that using scrap tires for fuel is better than putting them in landfills. The benefits to using tire-derived fuel (TDF) are:

• Tires provide as much energy as oil and 25% more energy than coal
• Ash residues from TDF may have lower heavy metals content than some coals
• NOx emissions are lower when compared to many U.S. coals, especially those with high-sulfur content