Tire World

Think for a moment about how many people live in the United States. Let’s crunch some hypothetical numbers. There are around 300 million people in the country. There is a reported 263 million registered vehicles as well. The simple version is 1 car for every 1 person. Each car has 4 tires (we will ignore spare tires and semi-trucks). Tires wear out on average every 3 to 4 years. That puts a rough estimate of about 300 million tires that are disposed each year. 300 million tires year in and year out. That was a lot of rough math. Let’s steer clear of math for awhile.

So Many Tires

What should we do with the ever growing supply of used tires? Will the world fill up with tires? As fun as a post-apocalyptic movie that would be, it’s just not the case. Tire World will not be coming to a theater near you. The bigger concern is the rodents and mosquitoes that love to live in used tires. No one will want to drop their used tires off at the disease ridden dump. Not to mention that rubber doesn’t really biodegrade anytime in this millennium. The best option is, of course, recycling. You already knew that. Perhaps you have already read other inspiring recycling articles on this very blog.

What Does it Mean?
What is the point of telling you to recycle? You’ve heard it a million times. You probably already to recycle wherever you can. The point is this. Recycling is a two way street. If everyone recycles and no one purchases or uses recycled products, the whole system collapses. How many tires have you worn out in your lifetime? How many of those tires are sitting in a dump right now? You get the idea. There is a hierarchy of importance with recyclables. Some thing are more urgent to recycle than others. Rubber is high the list of importance; right up there with metal and plastic. Don’t just recycle paper. Paper turns into dirt in less than year. Rubber will last 10 lifetimes or more. If rubber is going to be sticking around, we might as well find ways to make the best of it.