USTMA Report: 79% of U.S. End-of-Life Tires Reached End-Use Markets in 2025 as Stockpiles Fell 12% in Two Years

Biennial End-of-Life Tire Market Report shows a dynamic year, with stockpile cleanup continuing, markets moving in both directions and exports rising  

WASHINGTON, D.C., OCTOBER 27, 2026— The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) today released its 2025 End-of-Life Tire Market Report, USTMA's biennial assessment of where America's end-of-life tires go once they leave the road. The Association has published the report roughly every two years since the early 1990s, yielding more than three decades of data on end-of-life tire generation, markets and stockpiles. It is the most comprehensive national reporting available.

In 2025, about 79% of the 273 million end-of-life tires generated in the United States reached end-use markets. Tires remain the second-most recycled and reclaimed material after lead-acid batteries – ahead of paper, aluminum, glass and PET plastic – keeping valuable materials in circulation rather than sending them to landfills.

“This report gives a picture of a market in transition,” said Anne Forristall Luke, president and CEO of USTMA. “Stockpile cleanup continues, and 79% of end-of-life tires reached end-use markets. At the same time, several domestic markets contracted, and the rise in exports shows strong demand for this material outside the U.S. Together, those trends tell us our markets still depend on a handful of large industrial outlets, and that market development has to be the priority. The data points to where the work is needed, and much of that work is already underway.”

Stockpile Cleanup Keeps Delivering

Nationally, illegal and abandoned stockpiles fell to approximately 42.1 million tires, down from about 48 million in USTMA's 2023 report – a 12% decline in just the last two years and a 96% reduction from the billion-tire peak in 1990. Colorado's cleanup program drove the national decline, drawing down more than 12 million tires. New Jersey and Pennsylvania also cut theirs substantially, and North Carolina, Tennessee and Delaware fully resolved their stockpiles. Land disposal fell nearly 11%, to 779 thousand tons.

Markets Moved in Both Directions

Tire-derived fuel remains the largest single market at about 1,317 thousand tons, followed by ground rubber at about 1,201 thousand tons. Cement kilns grew about 5% to 821 thousand tons, now 62% of tire-derived fuel, as CO₂-reduction pressure and tire-derived fuel's biogenic content make it an attractive alternative fuel. Reclamation projects grew about 10%.

Contractions came largely from conditions beyond the tire industry's control. Pulp and paper mill closures took that market down 40%, and Michigan energy law changes cut utility boiler volume about 22%. Synthetic turf is losing share to cork, coconut husk and olive pit infill, 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.

Exports Rose  

Exports grew 270% since 2023, from 253 thousand to 936 thousand tons, and are now the third-largest destination for U.S. end-of-life tires. Growth is led by a fast-expanding India market on top of steady fuel exports to other Asian markets like Japan and South Korea. “International demand further demonstrates that this material has real value, but our priority is domestic circular end-use markets, because a tire processed here supports a U.S. recycler, U.S. jobs and U.S. infrastructure,” said Amelia Chucholowski, Associate Director, Sustainability and Recycling Policy at USTMA. “That includes ensuring that domestic processors have adequate feedstock. We’re watching it closely and working with our global partners both to understand what’s driving this trend and to report it transparently.” USTMA calls on all ELT exporters to ensure their destination markets are environmentally sound and economically viable.  

The Groundwork Is Further Along Than the Data Shows

Several investments now underway are expected to show early impact over the next 12 to 24 months:

• Tire Recycling Foundation (TRF)-funded environmental product declarations, which give design professionals the verified lifecycle documentation procurement increasingly requires
• Expanding chip seal applications and continued progress on the rubber-modified asphalt dry process
• Infrastructure dollars moving toward pavement projects. Kentucky awarded more than  
  $1.16 million from its Waste Tire Trust Fund in 2025 for nine county rubber-modified asphalt projects. In Michigan, state grants helped pay for rubberized asphalt streets in Ann Arbor, while a nearby Washtenaw County road project using the same material won a national paving award. In California, the state made $6.57 million available for rubberized pavement grants in fiscal 2025–26, and Caltrans committed $9 million to repave State Route 39 with rubberized asphalt.
• Emerging technologies reaching commercial scale, with pyrolysis now measurable for the first time
• TRF, a joint initiative of USTMA and the Tire Industry Association, maturing as an industry platform advancing education, research and demonstration projects fundamental for incentivizing further investments to expand markets

“The work that actually grows these markets is underway right now, and almost none of it shows up in a 2025 market report,” said Chucholowski. “Read this report as a snapshot of 2025. What we’re building now will be measured against in the future.”

The report also includes state-by-state stockpile data. “State programs have built one of the country’s great recycling success stories. 96 percent of the tire stockpiles that existed in 1990 are gone, and the lesson is clear: when states fund their programs, enforce the rules and invest in markets, results follow. The next chapter is about markets. The more states invest in uses like rubber-modified asphalt, the more tires become roads, products and energy here at home,” said Chucholowski.  

The full 2025 End-of-Life Tire Market Report is available at ustires.org/elt-report.