USTMA's 2025 End-of-Life Tire Market Report

The End-of-Life Tire Market Report is USTMA's biennial assessment of where America's end-of-life tires go once they leave the road. The association and its predecessor organizations have published it roughly every two years since the early 1990s, which gives it more than three decades of consistent data on scrap tire generation, markets and stockpiles. It is the most comprehensive national picture of this material available.

An end-of-life tire, or ELT, is a passenger, light truck, or truck and bus radial tire that has reached the end of its operational life and can no longer serve its original purpose, whether through worn tread, road damage, or because the vehicle it was on was scrapped. End-of-life tires are a normal and predictable byproduct of tire use.

This report provides information on all economically viable and environmentally beneficial end uses of ELTs, including energy recovery and land reclamation, beyond energy reclamation and recycling applications. Moreover, because end-of-life tire markets are demand-pull, not supply-push tracking market health rather than volume of tires generated is the more accurate measure of whether the system is working, and it points to where investment is needed.

USTMA compiles the report from direct submissions by states and processors, association summaries, trade and general press, discussions with end users and processors, ESG reporting, and consultation with expert market analysts. Every figure is compared across state and industry reports, cross-checked against processor data, and reviewed before it is finalized.

The United States generated about 273 million end-of-life tires, roughly 5,154 thousand tons. About 79% reached end-use markets. Nationally, illegal and abandoned stockpiles fell to approximately 42.1 million tires, with a 12% reduction of stockpiles in just the last two years. Exports grew sharply and are now the third-largest destination for U.S. end-of-life tires.

Among the materials benchmarked in this report, end-of-life tires are recycled and recovered at a higher rate than any consumer material except lead-acid batteries, keeping valuable materials in circulation rather than sending them to landfills. This is well ahead of other materials such as paper, aluminum, glass, and PET plastic.

Tire-derived fuel remains the largest single market at about 1,317 thousand tons, used primarily in cement kilns, pulp and paper mills, and electric and utility boilers. Ground rubber is second at about 1,201 thousand tons, supporting molded and extruded products, recreation surfaces, sports surfaces and rubber-modified asphalt. Tire-derived aggregate, used in civil engineering fill and drainage, is third among domestic markets.

Cement kilns grew about 5%, to 821 thousand tons, as pressure to reduce CO₂ emissions made tire-derived fuel an attractive alternative fuel since part of its carbon comes from natural rubber, which is plant-based. Reclamation projects grew about 10%. Pyrolysis crossed 1% of generation for the first time and is broken out as its own category in this report.

Several markets contracted for reasons largely outside the tire industry's control. Within tire-derived fuel, mill closures cut pulp and paper's consumption about 40%, and Michigan energy law changes reduced electric and utility boiler volume about 22%. Within ground rubber, synthetic turf continues to lose share to alternative infill materials such as cork, coconut husk and olive pits, and molded and extruded products pulled back from an unusually strong 2021 peak. Broader energy market volatility has also affected tire-derived fuel economics relative to conventional fuels.

Pyrolysis heats shredded tires in a low-oxygen chamber to recover oil, gas and a carbon black substitute. It has reached enough domestic volume, about 56 thousand tons, to be measured and reported on its own for the first time. It remains about 1% of generation, but it is a market USTMA expects to continue growing.

Nationally, illegal and abandoned stockpiles have fallen from roughly one billion tires at its 1990 peak to about 42.1 million today, a 96% cumulative reduction. Stockpiles declined 12% in the last two years alone. It is one of the largest post-consumer cleanup efforts in U.S. history.

Colorado's cleanup program accounted for the largest single reduction, drawing its reported stockpile down from about 26.2 million tires to 14.05 million. New Jersey and Pennsylvania also reduced their stockpiles substantially, and North Carolina, Tennessee and Delaware fully resolved theirs.

Some increases reflect improved state reporting rather than new tires accumulating. Several states moved from not reporting any data to reporting a measured figure, which registers as an increase even though the material was already there. USTMA views better state-level reporting as a positive development, providing more insights that will inform the initiatives to take in better managing ELTs.

The strongest programs treat three pillars as a package rather than a menu: funding, through a per-tire fee on new tire sales; market development, including landfill restrictions and support for end-use markets; and management, abatement and enforcement, including hauler and processor permitting, financial assurance, and an active cleanup program. No state currently checks every box, and that unevenness contributes to the variability of market health by region.

International demand confirms that this material has real value. However, USTMA's primary objective is domestic circular end-use markets, because a tire processed in the United States supports a U.S. recycler, U.S. jobs and U.S. infrastructure. That includes ensuring that domestic processors have adequate feedstock and the need to grow domestic demand for ELT by investing in expanding the U.S. markets.

Export volumes grew 270% since 2023, from 253 thousand to 936 thousand tons, driven by a fast-expanding market in India on top of steady tire-derived fuel exports to other Asian markets. We saw a significant demand in India’ driving the export numbers.
In collaboration with our global partners, USTMA is monitoring this trend closely and reporting it transparently. 
USTMA calls on all ELT exporters to ensure their destination markets are properly equipped to safely reuse tires and protect the environment.
 

Significant work is underway that this report does not yet capture. The Tire Recycling Foundation (TRF) is funding environmental product declarations that give specifiers the verified lifecycle documentation procurement increasingly requires. The Tire Recycling Foundation (TRF) is a joint initiative of USTMA and the Tire Industry Association. TRF provides critical educational and research support for the entire ELT market. Chip seal applications are expanding, and the rubber-modified asphalt dry process continues to advance. Infrastructure funding is moving toward pavement projects. Emerging technologies are reaching commercial scale. Much of these investments are expected to show early impact over the next 12 to 24 months.

That end-of-life tires are a valuable, engineered material moving through real markets, and that those markets respond to economic forces the same way any other market does. 2025 was a dynamic year, with stockpile cleanup continuing to deliver, markets moving in both directions, and exports rising sharply. This report is the baseline against which the market development work now underway will be measured.