USTMA Report Shows Shifting Domestic ELT Markets, Rise In Exports

Stockpile cleanup continuing, markets moving in both directions, exports climbing 270 percent

The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA) 2025 End-of-Life Tire Market Report has a new name reflecting its move from supply-side reporting to tacking market health.

An end-of-life tire (ELT) is a tire that can no longer serve its original purpose on a vehicle. ELTs are a normal, predictable byproduct of tire use. This report tracks what happens to them in the U.S. once they are generated.

“Tracking market health tells us more than tracking the volume of tires generated and shows us where investment is needed to grow end-use markets,” Amelia Chucholowski, Associate Director, Sustainability and Recycling Policy, USTMA, said in a webinar announcing release of the report.

The Association has published the report roughly every two years since the early 1990s, yielding more than three decades of end-of-life tire generation, market and stockpile data. It is the most comprehensive national reporting available.

In 2025, about 79 percent 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.

“This report gives a picture of a market in transition,” Anne Forristall Luke, president and CEO of USTMA, said.  “Stockpile cleanup continues, and 79% of end-of-life tires reached end-use markets.”

At the same time, Luke said, 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.”

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 percent to 821 thousand tons. Today, 62 percent of tire-derived fuel goes to end users as CO2-reduction pressure and tire-derived fuel’s biogenic content make it an attractive alternative fuel. Reclamation projects grew by 10 percent.

Contractions in the tire-derived-fuel came largely from conditions beyond the tire industry’s control. Pulp and paper mill closures took that market down 40 percent, and Michigan energy law changes cut utility boiler volume about 22 percent. Broader energy market volatility has also affected tire-derived fuel economics relative to conventional fuels.

Overall ground rubber fell 10.3 percent to 1,201K tons in 2025, down from 1,339K tons in 2023.

The molded & extruded/automotive market is still the largest single sub-market at 32 percent of the mix in 2025 (33 percent in 2023), on strong demand for durable, long-life rubber.

For the 2025 report, exports logged the biggest change and biggest increase in where U.S.- generated tires are going, raising industry concern.

Exports grew 270 percent 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, the report said.

“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,” Chucholowski said  “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 is calling on all ELT exporters to ensure their destination markets are environmentally sound and economically viable.Nationally, illegal and abandoned stockpiles fell to approximately 42.1 million tires, down from about 48 million in USTMA’s 2023 report – a 12 percent decline in just the last two years and a 96 percent 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 their stockpiles substantially, and North Carolina, Tennessee and Delaware fully resolved their stockpiles. Land disposal fell nearly 11percent, to 779 thousand tons.

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

•  The Tire Recycling Foundation (TRF) -funded environmental product declarations, now in development, give design professionals the verified lifecycle documentation, recycled content product procurement increasingly requires.

•  Launched two years ago,TRF, a joint initiative of USTMA and the Tire Industry Association, continues to mature as an industry platform advancing education, research and demonstration projects fundamental for incentivizing further investments to expand markets.  

•  Another initiative is focused on expanding chip seal applications and continuing progress on the rubber-modified asphalt dry process. Also,infrastructure dollars are 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 are showing promise reaching commercial scale, with pyrolysis now measurable for the first time in this report.

“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.”

New to the 2025 report end-of-life annual tire generation is broken out by tire type. Light duty dominates. Light-duty tires make up 87 percent of gross tires hauled (274M of 316M), which nets to 273M once used-tire culls are subtracted. Commercial tires are far heavier per unit, though: 120 lbs vs. 25 lbs for light-duty.

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,” Chucholowski said.

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