Exports took 18.2% of the scrap tires generated in the United States in 2025, up from 5.2% in 2023, according to the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association's 2025 End-of-Life Tire Report published on October 27, 2026. The tonnage leaving the country rose from 253,000 to 936,000 tons, a 3.7-fold increase in two years, while every large domestic end market shrank.
That shift lets the headline recycling rate stay at 79% and hides a weaker home market. Strip out exports and the share of US end-of-life tires going to domestic uses fell from 73% to 61%. Trade data show where the extra volume went: India took 67.7% of US exports of rubber waste and scrap (HS 4004) in 2025, and the United States became India's largest supplier of that material in 2024, ahead of the United Kingdom.
Exports grew 3.7-fold while domestic markets lost 421,000 tons
USTMA counts 273 million net end-of-life tires generated in 2025, or 5,154,000 tons, up 6.6% by weight from 4,836,000 tons in 2023. Total volume sent to markets rose 6.9% to 4,063,000 tons. On the surface, nothing changed: about 79% of generation reached a market in both report years.
The composition changed a great deal. Tire-derived fuel (TDF) fell 14.8% to 1,317,000 tons. Ground rubber fell 10.3% to 1,201,000 tons. Tire-derived aggregate, used as lightweight fill in civil engineering, fell 21.5% to 207,000 tons. Exports were the only large category that grew. Taking exports out of the market total, domestic consumption dropped from 3,548,000 tons to 3,127,000 tons, a loss of 421,000 tons or 11.9%.
| US end-of-life tire destination (thousand tons) | 2023 | 2025 | Change | Share of 2025 generation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tire-derived fuel | 1,546 | 1,317 | -14.8% | 25.6% |
| Ground rubber | 1,339 | 1,201 | -10.3% | 23.3% |
| Exported | 253 | 936 | +270% | 18.2% |
| Tire-derived aggregate | 264 | 207 | -21.5% | 4.0% |
| Other markets | 399 | 402 | +0.8% | 7.8% |
| Land disposed (not a market) | 874 | 779 | -10.9% | 15.1% |
| Unaccounted | 161 | 311 | +93.2% | 6.0% |
| Total to markets | 3,801 | 4,063 | +6.9% | 78.8% |
| Total generated | 4,836 | 5,154 | +6.6% | 100% |
Two other lines deserve attention. The unaccounted category almost doubled, from 161,000 to 311,000 tons, and the share USTMA reports as managed fell from 97% to 94%. Land disposal fell 10.9%, which is the one clear improvement, but it is smaller in tonnage than the jump in exports. USTMA itself says exports accounted for 2 to 6 percentage points of utilization in its reports from 2017 to 2023, and 18 points in 2025.
Fuel buyers took 229,000 fewer tons, led by a 39% drop in pulp and paper
The domestic decline is concentrated in fuel. Cement kilns, the most stable TDF user, raised consumption 4.7% to 821,000 tons and now account for 62% of all TDF. Pulp and paper mills went the other way: their use fell from 562,000 to 341,000 tons, a 39% drop that USTMA links to mill closures. USTMA also reports a drop of about 22% in electric utility boiler volume in Michigan. Net, TDF lost 229,000 tons in two years.
Ground rubber lost 138,000 tons. Molded and extruded products, including automotive parts, fell 13.1% from 440,000 to 382,000 tons. Loose mulch and sports surfaces each fell about 10%. Rubber-modified asphalt slipped from 165,000 to 157,000 tons, after a 17% gain between 2021 and 2023 that USTMA highlighted in its October 2024 release. Tire-derived aggregate lost 57,000 tons.
Smaller outlets grew but cannot fill the gap. Pyrolysis appears as a separate line for the first time at 56,000 tons, about 1.1% of generation. Reclamation projects rose to 44,000 tons from 40,000. Electric arc furnaces held at 70,000 tons. Even counting all of pyrolysis as new demand, these lines added about 60,000 tons, a little over a quarter of the 221,000 tons pulp and paper alone gave up.
India took 67.7% of US scrap rubber exports in 2025, up from 7.4% in 2017
USTMA does not give tonnage by destination, but it names India as the fastest-growing buyer and notes steady fuel exports to Japan and South Korea. UN Comtrade data for HS 4004, which covers waste, parings and scrap of rubber including cut and shredded scrap tires, fill in the picture. US-reported exports under that code rose from 144,700 metric tons in 2019 to 600,000 metric tons in 2025, a 4.1-fold increase. They had fallen to 49,700 tons in 2020 and 58,600 tons in 2021 before the climb began.
India accounts for most of the growth. US-reported shipments to India were 7,600 tons in 2017, 68,900 tons in 2019, 118,200 tons in 2023 and 406,200 tons in 2025. India's share of the total moved from 7.4% to 47.6%, then 59.9%, then 67.7%. South Korea was the second-largest buyer in 2025 at 96,900 tons, up 44.8% from 66,900 tons in 2024. Canada took 39,800 tons and Japan 27,300 tons.
| Year | US exports, HS 4004 (thousand metric tons) | To India (thousand metric tons) | India share | Average value (US$ per metric ton) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 102.9 | 7.6 | 7.4% | 276 |
| 2019 | 144.7 | 68.9 | 47.6% | 209 |
| 2021 | 58.6 | 3.6 | 6.1% | 488 |
| 2023 | 197.4 | 118.2 | 59.9% | 209 |
| 2024 | 451.3 | 301.5 | 66.8% | 154 |
| 2025 | 600.0 | 406.2 | 67.7% | 166 |
The value column matters. Total US exports under HS 4004 were worth $99.6 million in 2025, which works out to about $166 per metric ton, down from $209 in 2019 and 2023. Shipments to India averaged about $162 per ton. At that price the trade is a low-value bulk outlet, and its economics depend on freight rates and on demand from Indian processors more than on the quality of the material.
The US overtook the UK as India's largest scrap rubber supplier in 2024
India's own import statistics point the same way. India-reported imports under HS 4004 grew from 753,000 metric tons in 2019 to 1,290,000 tons in 2023 and 2,086,800 tons, or about 2.09 million metric tons, in 2025, a 2.8-fold increase over six years. Imports from the United States rose from 142,400 tons in 2019 to 607,900 tons in 2025, lifting the US share from 18.9% to 29.1%. The United Kingdom, long the largest supplier, shipped 389,700 tons in 2025 but its share fell from 34.4% to 18.7%. The crossover came in 2024, when India recorded 490,900 tons from the US against 363,200 tons from the UK. Saudi Arabia (171,900 tons) and Australia (108,400 tons) followed in 2025.
The rules on the Indian side set the limits of this trade. In a written Rajya Sabha reply published by PIB on August 21, 2025, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said waste tires are listed in Part B of Schedule III of the Hazardous and Other Wastes Rules, 2016. Only actual users holding the required permissions may import them, and only for recycling or recovery into products such as reclaim rubber, crumb rubber, crumb rubber modified bitumen and recovered carbon black. The Waste Tyre EPR notification of July 2022 prohibits importing waste tires to make pyrolysis oil or char, and the Central Pollution Control Board revised its operating procedure for tire pyrolysis oil units in January 2025.
The two data sets do not match exactly. India recorded 607,900 tons from the US in 2025, about 50% more than the 406,200 tons the US reported shipping to India. USTMA's 936,000 tons are US short tons, roughly 849,000 metric tons, which is more than the 638,800 metric tons the US reported under HS 4004 and HS 4012.20 (used tires) combined. Timing, classification of baled or whole tires and estimation methods all play a part. The direction is consistent across all three sources.
One policy change in India could strand 18% of US scrap tire supply
Concentration is the risk. If roughly two thirds of US scrap rubber exports go to one country, and exports now absorb 18.2% of US generation, then a single change in India's import permissions, EPR enforcement or freight costs would push a large tonnage back into a domestic system that is already shrinking. The domestic markets lost 421,000 tons in two years. India alone took 406,200 metric tons from the US in 2025 by US count. There is no obvious domestic buyer for that volume at short notice: pulp and paper capacity is closing, aggregate demand is falling, and pyrolysis is still a 56,000-ton line.
Stockpiles give a partial buffer and a warning. USTMA counts about 42 million tires in stockpiles in 2025, down 12% from 48 million in 2023 and down 96% from the 1990 peak of about 1 billion. Colorado alone cut its reported pile from 26.2 million to 14.05 million tires. Those gains were made while exports were absorbing growth. A sudden loss of the export outlet would test whether state programs can keep the numbers falling.
What tire makers, raw-material buyers, recyclers and investors should do now
Tire makers in the US carry the reputational link to a 79% recovery rate that now leans on overseas processing. Recycled-content claims for new tires and EPR-style proposals at state level are likely to be judged on the domestic figure of 61%, not the headline. Makers that want recovered carbon black or devulcanized rubber in their compounds have a reason to secure domestic feedstock contracts while scrap is cheap and oversupplied at home.
Raw-material buyers looking at recovered carbon black or pyrolysis oil should note that India's 2022 EPR rules bar imported tires from pyrolysis. Indian output of those products cannot legally rest on US scrap, so the export flow mainly feeds crumb and reclaim rubber. US pyrolysis volume of 56,000 tons is small but now visible in national statistics, and the falling export value of about $166 per ton sets a low bar for feedstock pricing.
Recyclers and processors in the US compete with export brokers for the same casings. A 13.1% fall in molded and extruded products and a 10.3% fall in total ground rubber point to weak end demand, not weak supply. Plants that add value through finer mesh crumb, rubber-modified asphalt contracts or tire pyrolysis oil are better placed than those selling coarse shred.
Distributors and haulers collect 316 million tires a year and cull 43 million as reusable used tires. Their tipping fees depend on where the remainder can go. Export routes have been cheap, so a disruption would show up first as higher tipping fees at the tire shop.
Investors in the end-of-life tire recycling market should treat the 79% figure with caution. The growth in US recycling between 2023 and 2025 came from exports, and the domestic base contracted. Watch three indicators: monthly US trade data for HS 4004 to India, any revision of India's Schedule III permissions, and USTMA's updated rubber-modified asphalt report, which the association expects by the end of 2026.
Methodology and sources
All shares and changes were recomputed from the source tables. USTMA reports weights in US short tons, and we checked this against its per-tire weights (about 25 pounds for a light-duty tire and 120 pounds for a commercial tire, consistent with the 37.8-pound average implied by 5,154,000 tons and 273 million tires). UN Comtrade weights are metric tons. We do not add or compare the two without converting. The domestic market figure is USTMA's total to market minus exports. Average export values divide reported trade value by net weight. Comtrade 2020 US totals and 2024 India totals were missing a world row and were built by summing partner rows. HS 4004 includes non-tire rubber waste, so it is an upper bound for scrap tire trade.
- USTMA, 2025 End-of-Life Tire Report (PDF, October 2026): generation, market table 2023 and 2025, TDF and ground rubber breakdowns, exports, stockpiles.
- USTMA, End-of-Life Tire Market Report page (released October 27, 2026): release date, summary figures, stockpile and export notes.
- USTMA, release on the 2023 report (October 24, 2024): 79% utilization and rubber-modified asphalt growth since 2021.
- UN Comtrade: US-reported exports of HS 4004 and HS 4012.20 by partner, 2017-2025, and India-reported imports of HS 4004 by partner, 2018-2025 (annual data, accessed October 29, 2026).
- Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, "Ban on Import of Waste Tyres" (August 21, 2025): Schedule III listing, actual-user rule, pyrolysis import prohibition, CPCB January 2025 procedure.
Frequently Asked Questions
936,000 tons, or 18.2% of the 5,154,000 tons generated, according to USTMA. That compares with 253,000 tons and 5.2% in 2023.
Yes, 79% of 2025 generation reached a market, but excluding exports the domestic share fell from 73% in 2023 to 61% in 2025.
India took 67.7% of US exports of rubber waste and scrap (HS 4004) in 2025, or 406,200 metric tons, followed by South Korea at 96,900 tons.
Tire-derived fuel fell 14.8% to 1,317,000 tons and ground rubber fell 10.3% to 1,201,000 tons; pulp and paper fuel use dropped 39%.
No. India's July 2022 Waste Tyre EPR notification prohibits importing waste tires to make pyrolysis oil or char; imports are allowed only for uses such as crumb rubber, reclaim rubber and recovered carbon black.
About $166 per metric ton on average in 2025, down from $209 in 2019 and 2023, based on UN Comtrade values for HS 4004.