Contractor’s Report
to CalRecycle
9
Category
Sub-Category
2010
2011
2012
Percent
change
2011-
2012
Million
PTE
Percent
of Total
Million
PTE
Percent
of Total
Million
PTE
Percent
of Total
Engineer
-ing
Non-Landfill
Applications
0.0
0.1%
0.0
0.0%
0.0
0.0%
NA
Subtotal
1.8
4.4%
0.6
1.4%
0.6
1.3%
-1.2%
Alternative Daily Cover
0.8
1.9%
2.0
4.8%
1.0
2.3%
-46.5%
Other Recycling
0.0
0.1%
0.1
0.2%
0.0
0.0%
NA
Tire-
Derived
Fuel
Cement
7.4
18.0%
5.6
13.8%
7.6
16.9%
34.9%
Co-Generation
1.0
2.3%
0.6
1.4%
0.1
0.3%
-76.6%
Subtotal
8.4
20.3%
6.2
15.2%
7.7
17.2%
24.7%
Landfill Disposal
7.8
19.0%
5.0
12.2%
3.3
7.3%
-34.2%
Estimated Total Managed
41.1
100%
40.8
100%
45.0
100%
10.3%
Total Diverted from Landfill
33.3
81.0%
35.8
87.8%
41.7
92.7%
16.5%
Imports
1.0
2.5%
1.2
3.0%
0.7
1.6%
-38.8%
Synopsis of Trends
Figure 2 shows trends in end uses for waste tires by broad market category since 2002.
3
As in
2011, the diversion rate increase during 2012 was largely due to unprecedented growth in exports
of tires to Pacific Rim nations, including processed tire-derived fuel tire chips and waste tires
bales or shreds that are also ultimately used mainly as tire-derived fuel.
4
Waste tire exports
increased by 41 percent from 2011 to 2012 after a 39 percent increase in the previous year.
However, waste tire bales/shred exports appear to have peaked in late 2012 and declined in the
first half of 2013.
This trend, combined with increased enforcement of export operations, has reduced the
competitive pressure for tire collection accounts (e.g., from new tire retailers and other facilities
that generate waste tires) and pricing that many established processors have been experiencing in
recent years as new export operations were quickly established as waste tire export demand
boomed. Exports of processed tire-derived fuel, especially to Japan and Korea, however, continue
to be strong and are expected to grow in 2013. This demand is being met, however, by established
processors and not by dedicated exporters established in recent years.
3
Data for 2002-2006 are from CalRecycle’s annual “California Waste Tire Generation, Markets and Disposal”
reports. Methodological differences complicate direct comparisons between 2002 and 2006 and later statistics. See
Appendix A for details.
4
In this report, the waste tire exports category includes both bales/shreds as well as tire chips processed to meet
TDF standards, typically 1.5 to 2 inch chips.
