Tire Recycling for US Municipalities: Managing Community Tire Waste

By:     Conor Murphy

Every US municipality generates a waste tire problem. Residents dump tires at roadsides and illegal sites. Tire shops and auto dealers generate volumes that disposal infrastructure struggles to absorb. Collection events fill up faster than expected. Landfill tire bans mean the conventional disposal route is no longer available in most states. And without a functional local processing capability, the cost of managing community tire waste falls entirely on hauling and tipping fees at distant licensed facilities.

Municipalities that invest in on-site tire baling capability change this dynamic. They bring processing control in-house, reduce per-tire disposal costs, generate bale revenue from processed tires, and create a service that tire generators in the community actively use. This article covers how US municipalities approach community tire waste management, the equipment options available, and the program structures that work at different scales.

The Scale of US Municipal Tire Waste

The United States generates approximately 290 million scrap tires annually. A city of 100,000 residents generates roughly 200,000 to 300,000 tires per year from passenger vehicles alone, before accounting for commercial vehicles, public transit fleets, and municipal equipment. A single county solid waste authority serving a rural region of 50,000 people may still receive 80,000 to 120,000 tires annually at collection events and transfer stations.

These volumes are sufficient to justify on-site baling equipment at most county and regional solid waste authorities. The question is not whether the volume justifies equipment, but whether the program structure, permitting, and downstream market relationships are in place to make the operation run at a manageable cost per tire. 

State Program Support for Municipal Tire Management

Most states with active waste tire programs offer specific support mechanisms for municipalities. Advance Disposal Fee (ADF) funds collected at point of tire sale are often directed partly toward municipal collection programs. States including California (CalRecycle), Texas (TCEQ), Illinois (IEPA), and Florida (FDEP) have grant programs or reimbursement mechanisms that offset the cost of municipal tire collection events or processing infrastructure.

Before investing in tire baling equipment, a municipal solid waste authority should confirm what support is available from their state program. Some state programs will fund a portion of equipment costs outright. Others provide per-tire reimbursement for tires processed through state-registered facilities that reduces the net operating cost of the program. Understanding the state funding landscape before designing a program avoids leaving available support on the table.

“Municipalities that engage their state tire program early in the planning process consistently get better outcomes than those who plan independently and then seek state support,” says Conor Murphy, Director of Gradeall International. “State programs have both funding and technical support to offer, and they have a strong interest in helping municipalities succeed because municipal programs reduce illegal dumping in their jurisdiction.”

Tire Baling Equipment for Municipal Operations

The MKII Tire Baler is the practical choice for most municipal tire processing operations. It handles the passenger car and light truck tires that make up the majority of the community tire stream, produces bales to PAS 108-equivalent specification that access TDF and civil engineering markets, and operates reliably in the intermittent use pattern typical of municipal collection environments where processing runs may be seasonal or event-based rather than continuous.

The Gradeall MKII Tire Baler operates on standard three-phase industrial power and requires no specialist operator certification beyond standard equipment training. For municipalities that also accept commercial truck tires, adding the Gradeall Truck Tire Sidewall Cutter to the processing line handles that category without replacing the car tire baler.

Managing Community Collection Events With Processing Capability

Municipal tire collection events generate large volumes in short periods. A Saturday collection event serving a county of 80,000 residents may receive 5,000 to 15,000 tires in a single day. Without on-site processing capability, all those tires need to be transported to an off-site licensed facility, which means either stockpiling until a full load is accumulated (fire risk and permit compliance issue) or making multiple expensive partial-load hauls.

With a baler on site, tires coming off the collection event can be processed directly into bales as they arrive, eliminating stockpiling, reducing transport costs dramatically (bales ship at much higher density than loose tires), and generating bale revenue that offsets some event costs. The baler pays for itself faster in a high-intensity collection event model than in steady continuous processing, because the cost savings at each event are concentrated and measurable.

For municipalities with seasonal or event-based processing needs, the Gradeall portable tyre baling system provides a mobile or relocatable processing option that can serve multiple collection sites rather than being fixed at a single location.

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