Record Number of U.S. Tires Being Recycled

A record 80 percent of old tires were recycled for other uses including fuel and playground equipment in 2003, according to a U.S. industry report released on Wednesday.

"Back in the early '90s when there was over a billion tires in stockpiles, no one knew what could be done with them, and the markets that did exist were very small," said Dan Zielinski, a spokesman with the Rubber Manufacturers Association, the group that funded the study.