\u201cAnd at a certain point, that\u2019s got to be dealt with. We came to the realization that there had to be a new use for these tires, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re at today,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they\u2019re not usable anymore on the street, they\u2019re very suitable when they\u2019re turned into a different type of product to make other things, things that are all around us.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ctc-l-nascar-Day-1031-retoned_231122562.jpg\")
A crew member releases tire air for Katherine Legge (78)’s team during the NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 110 on July 5, 2025. (Audrey Richardson\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
In 2024, a total of 215 million tires<\/a> \u2014 including 92,588 from NASCAR \u2014 were recycled by Liberty, a company based in North Carolina that collects and processes racing, as well as auto and truck tires, from all across North America, according to spokesperson John Dowdy.<\/p>\n The ideal would be to reuse a tire for the rest of its life, Dowdy said, which is possible when retailers resell gently used auto or truck tires for less than new ones. But, after being used, racing tires don\u2019t usually have any more life left in them, at least in their original form.<\/p>\n At a Liberty facility in Concord, a suburb of Charlotte in North Carolina, NASCAR racing tires are shredded into quarter-sized chips that can be used as aggregate in roadbeds, landfill liners and landscaping products.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect example of sustainability,\u201d Heinrich said. \u201cYou\u2019re taking stuff that\u2019s worn out, you can\u2019t use it again for what it was originally built for, but it goes into something else. Nothing is wasted.\u201d<\/p>\n The shredded tires can also be used as a more efficient fuel to power kilns and boilers in concrete factories, electric plants and pulp and paper mills. However, while burning so-called tire-derived fuel is cleaner than using other fossil fuels, the process still releases some greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.<\/p>\n IMC Outdoor Living<\/a>, a division of Liberty in the village of Godfrey in southwest Illinois, makes fully recycled rubber products out of tires for both residential and commercial landscaping. One of these products is rubber mulch, with a realistic texture that makes it look just like its wood counterpart, and which can be used to cover the ground in playgrounds and parks, making it safe for children to jump and land on.<\/p>\n However, there are concerns<\/a> that such products derived from tires can expose kids to heavy metals and other harmful chemicals, which can act as carcinogens or neurotoxins.<\/p>\n In 2024, the company gave a second life to 4.7 billion pounds of rubber, Dowdy said. That material might otherwise have been disposed of illegally.<\/p>\n These recycled products also eliminate the need to produce entirely new ones, which would entail deforestation.\u00a0Processing synthetic rubber is an energy-intensive process that can cause pollution, too.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we ultimately want to do is, we want to replace virgin rubber in as many goods as we possibly can,\u201d Dowdy said.<\/p>\n Other Liberty recycling facilities grind up the tires into an even smaller end product: crumb rubber<\/a>. Crumb rubber is at most 0.25 inches, and a single passenger car tire can produce some 10 to 12 pounds of the product.<\/p>\n In one of its main uses, crumb rubber is mixed into asphalt to make it more durable and resistant to cracking.<\/p>\n In September of last year, 2,800 end-of-life auto tires from Walmart were processed by Liberty and became part of a mix used to repave the parking lot<\/a> of one of the chain retailer\u2019s stores, in Rolla, Missouri.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re keeping tires from going into and just clogging up landfills, or being dumped (in) nature and creating all this blight,\u201d Dowdy said. \u201cWe can actually create products that make other things better.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ctc-l-nascar-Day-1029_231091676.jpg\")
Anthony Alfredo (42) comes around turn six during the Nascar Infinity Series Practice & Qualifying ahead of the NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 110 on July 5, 2025. (Audrey Richardson\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n