WASHINGTON-Approximately 270 million scrap tires are generated each year and 70 percent of discarded tires are sent to market, according to the Scrap Tire Management Council.
``The past decade has produced an environmental success story with scrap tires,'' said John Serumgard, RMA executive vice president. ``Our challenge now is to continue our progress toward sound markets and management for 100 percent of scrap tires at a time when many states see their tire disposal efforts as successful and want to put resources to other uses.''
Mr. Serumgard noted that in 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that more than 3 billion scrap tires were strewn across the country when in fact the likely figure was closer to 1 billion. Today that number is around 300.
He said the rate of scrap tires sent to market is higher than several better known commodities such as paper (62.5 percent) and glass (50 percent).