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Tire recycling is not a new
business it first accelerated during the the
second world war when there were mass shortages of
available rubber. Citizens were encouraged to turn
in there used and unneeded tires to help in the
war effort. After the war tires became
cheap and plentiful. The average citizen didn't
think twice about throwing used tires in the
trash. This now has turned into a major
problem.
There are literaly piles of
tires illegaly dumped all over this country, also
millions of ton of recyclable material is dumped
into our cloged landfills every year.
There is a great opportunity
to do the right thing and also make good money
doing it.
What is a tire is made
of?
Car and light truck tires are
made from rubber compounds, steel wire, and
sinthetic and natural fibers.
All of these materials are
recyclable. Currently scrap steel is at around
$250.00 per ton, there is about 3 lbs of
steel in a car or light truck tire that equates to
$0.38 per tire just in scrap steel
value. That leaves the rubber this
can be processed down to crumb #40 mesh and
smaller (#40 mesh equates to material that will
pass thru a screen with 40 holes per square inch).
The crumb rubber is used for many purposes some of
which are asphalt additives, doormats,
revulcanized rubber products, building material
fillers, ect. Crumb rubber resells for around
$0.17 per pound. Thats about $2.00 per tire.
Rubber mulch is
another profitable use of the tire rubber. rubber
mulch consists of wire free tire chips sized to
minus 3/4". This product can be colored or
shipped black. It is generaly used for mulching
around trees and shrubs. Another great use for this
is around playground equipment it acts as a
cushion should a child fall. Rates for mulch vary
greatly but it averages between $0.14 -
$0.21 per
pound. Sidewall rubber is a
conveinent source
for wire
free
material.
Tire derived fuel (TDF) . TDF
is generally tire chips sized to minus 2" with
minimal exposed wire. This material is sold to
power plants and cement kilns to supliment the
burning of coal. This material varies greatly in
size requirments and price paid, also some states
don't allow it to be used. It can prove profitable
to resell a percentage or all of your material for
TDF if you don't have the equipment or space to
process the tires down further. Prices paid for
TDF are in the realm of $40.00 per ton.
Tire disposal fee's are the
bread and butter of this industry. You can expect
to be paid between $0.75 - $3.00 per tire to
pickup and dispose of waste tires. A good minimum
scenario a one person operation that can dispose
of 500 tires per day can generate $375.00 gross.
If you can recycle recycle 6lbs of sidewall ruber
into mulch per tire thats an additional $250.00
per day. Pulling the beadseat wire to be recycled
as steel scrap can produce and additional $125.00
per day. This adds up to $750.00 per day gross
profit. Thats $195,000 per year for a one person
operation. This is at the minimum rates for
disposal fee's and processed tires, most areas are
in the $1.25 per tire range.
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