Most people know they shouldn't throw tires in the trash — but few know what actually happens after a tire gets picked up for recycling. The answer is more interesting than you might expect. Recycled tires become fuel for cement kilns, infill for athletic fields, surfacing for playgrounds, rubber for asphalt, and dozens of other products. Here's the full picture.
Step 1: Collection & Transport
When a registered waste tire hauler picks up your tires, they're transported to a permitted processing facility. In South Carolina, every load must be documented with a manifest — a record of where the tires came from, how many there were, and where they're going. This chain of custody is required by SC DHEC and ensures tires don't end up illegally dumped.
Step 2: Sorting & Sizing
At the processing facility, tires are sorted by type — passenger, light truck, semi, OTR, farm. Different sizes and compositions go to different processing lines. Passenger and light truck tires are the most versatile feedstock. Semi and OTR tires require more processing due to their size and higher steel content.
Step 3: Shredding
Whole tires go through industrial shredders — first a primary shredder that reduces them to 2–4" chips, then secondary shredding for finer material. The shredding process also begins to separate the steel belts and fiber cords from the rubber. What comes out of the primary shredder is called TDF (tire-derived fuel) chips if it's going to be used for energy, or continues processing for rubber products.
Where Recycled Tires End Up
Cement Kilns (TDF — ~40% of recycled tires)
The single largest end market for recycled tires in the US. Cement kilns operate at 2,600°F+ and need enormous amounts of fuel. TDF chips have a higher BTU value than coal and burn cleanly at kiln temperatures. The steel in the tires gets incorporated into the cement clinker. Roughly 40% of all recycled tires in the US end up as TDF.
Athletic Fields (Crumb Rubber Infill)
Crumb rubber — finely ground tire rubber — is used as infill in artificial turf fields. It provides cushioning, helps blades of grass stand upright, and improves playing surface performance. A single NFL-size artificial turf field uses approximately 40,000 lbs of crumb rubber infill.
Playgrounds (Rubber Mulch & Poured Surfaces)
Rubber mulch made from recycled tires is widely used as playground surfacing. It provides excellent fall protection, lasts 10+ years, and doesn't decompose like wood mulch. Poured-in-place rubber surfaces (bound rubber granules) are also used for accessible playground areas.
Asphalt (Rubberized Asphalt)
Ground tire rubber is added to asphalt mixtures to create rubberized asphalt — also called crumb rubber modified (CRM) asphalt. It's quieter, more durable, and more resistant to cracking than standard asphalt. Many state DOTs use rubberized asphalt for highway surfaces.
Rubber Products (Mats, Flooring, Molded Goods)
Crumb rubber is used to manufacture rubber mats, gym flooring, horse stall mats, dock bumpers, and hundreds of other molded rubber products. The rubber is mixed with a binder and pressed or molded into shape.
Pyrolysis (Emerging Market)
Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition process that breaks tire rubber down into oil, carbon black, steel, and gas. The oil can be used as fuel or refined into specialty products. Carbon black can replace virgin carbon black in rubber manufacturing. Pyrolysis is growing but still represents a small fraction of total tire recycling volume.
What Happens to the Steel & Fiber?
Tires aren't just rubber. A passenger tire is roughly 14% steel and 6% fiber (nylon or polyester cords). During processing, steel is separated using powerful magnets and sold as scrap metal. Fiber is separated using air classification and screening — it's typically used as a fuel supplement or in fiber-reinforced products. Nothing goes to waste.
What About Tires That Can't Be Recycled?
In South Carolina, whole tires cannot be landfilled. Shredded tires have limited landfill options and still require documentation. The goal of the SC DHEC waste tire program is to keep tires out of landfills entirely — and the combination of TDF markets, crumb rubber demand, and emerging pyrolysis capacity makes this increasingly achievable. The vast majority of tires collected by registered haulers in SC are processed and reused in some form.
Schedule Responsible Tire Recycling
Every tire we pick up gets processed into a useful product — TDF, crumb rubber, rubber mulch, or steel. Nothing gets dumped.