By Nicole LaMarco Updated February 04, 2019
There are around 300 million vehicles on the road in the U.S. This means a tremendous amount of tires are replaced every year, and everyone from mechanic shops to dealerships to people at their homes need to get rid of them. That’s why there are so many ways to make money recycling used tires. Here are a few ideas and the steps to turn wheels into cash.
Most businesses don’t want to wait until they have enough tires to warrant a trip to the recycling center or retreading business. That’s where you come in. Let local garages, tow truck companies, dealerships, car detailers, and anywhere else that deals with a lot of vehicles and maintenance know that you can pick up their tires for a price.
The average is around $3 per tire, but that may vary for your area. This means you need to own a pickup truck, and you need to be available often, but it can be a tidy and immediate influx of cash.
Retreading tires is a business in which old tires are revamped to be functional again. If you have a storage facility big enough, you can store the used tires you pick up until you have enough for that type of business to warrant a pickup. It varies, but most services won’t pick up until you have 100 or so tires ready to go. This means you get paid twice for the same tires – once by the people you picked them up from and once by the retreading company.
Do a web search for “tire retreading” in your area to find companies that do this kind of work and find out how much they pay per tire and if there are any restrictions on the kind of tires they accept or the amount per visit. By doing your homework, you can see which company pays the best and make your decision from there. Don’t forget to factor in your costs of transporting the tires. If a place close to you pays less per tire, it may be worth it to save on gas and wear-and-tear on your truck.
Some tires cannot be repurposed, but that doesn’t mean they cannot be useful. There is always the trusty old tire swing that you can make by drilling a few holes and using a bit of rope, but there are loads of other uses, as well. You can make everything from chairs to garden ponds to planters to hose storage from old tires. The sturdy rubber material makes them hearty and ideal for the outdoors.
Making money from recycling used tires takes some hustle and know-how, but if you have a pickup truck and the time to make connections, it can be a profitable business. Many places are looking for someone just like you to help them out and keep things rolling along.
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Writer Bio
Nicky is a business writer with nearly two decades of hands-on and publishing experience. She's been published in several business publications, including The Employment Times, Web Hosting Sun and WOW! Women on Writing. She also studied business in college.
Need some extra money? You might want to recycle old tires for cash.
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As we discussed in our article on how you can Get Cash for Recycling Old Appliances, recycling is not only good for the planet, it can be great for your wallet!
Believe it or not, there is money to be made in the old junk you see laying around, including tires.
You might be asking yourself: who buys scrap tires, anyway? The good news is that there are many tire centers that retread or recycle old tires.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, tires are banned from most landfills as they are a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests. That means there are a lot of used tires hanging around auto shops and garages, just waiting to be scooped up.
We created this guide to teach you how to get paid for used tires. There’s no reason you can’t profit from another person’s trash!
Let’s start with what you really want to know.
The short answer is: yes.
Tire retailers are required to keep the used tires that they remove from vehicles they are servicing.
But when retailers must get rid of their old tires, they have limited options.
They can either pay their employees to take the tires to a recycling center, or they can pay the recycling center to come pick them up.
Recycling centers can charge retailers anywhere from $1.00 to $10.00 per tire to properly dispose of or recycle tires.
Why is that a good thing? Because it means you can get free tires!
A retailer would much rather have you come pick up their old tires for free, than pay someone to take out what is essentially their trash.
And free tires mean cash in your pocket.
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How? It’s simple, actually.
You connect with local tire retailers, auto body shops, and even mechanics to let them know that you are in the business of buying used and scrap tires.
Your best bet is to go the legal route and start a legit business.
It’s important that the retailers recognize you as a legitimate business, and not someone who is just going to illegally store or dispose of their old tires, as that could get you both in trouble.
Also, it is easier to form a relationship with other companies when you are “Joe from Ultra Tire Collection” rather than “Joe from down the block.”
So how does one go about getting in the business of selling used tires?
First, be sure to check with the local and state regulations for your area regarding the storage and resale of used tires.
After that, you’ll want to register your business and obtain a business license.
From there, you can create business cards, fliers, and advertisements to share with local businesses and individuals.
The first way you might want to consider is simply recycling the tires to recycling centers yourself, many of which might pay you just to recycle them.
After you’ve made your business official, you will need to do some research on your local recycling centers.
Have some less-than-perfect tires on your hands? If you’re trying to figure out who buys scrap tires, your best bet is to visit your local tire recycling centers.
Tire recycling centers will buy scrap tires, though you won’t get as much money for them. You can expect around $1 to $5 per tire, but that’s nearly all profit!
If you can’t find any businesses locally, the internet always has your back. Recycler’s World has been matching buyers and sellers online for over 20 years.
Another great site is Recycle Nation. Bonus: this site helps you find places to recycle almost anything, so why limit yourself to tires?
Note that not all recycling centers will pay you for your tires, so you’ll need to make it clear when you contact them that you’re looking for cash for your tires.
You can always gather offers from different centers before you make a final decision to make the most out of your used tires.
Another way you can get paid for used tires is by selling the ones you’ve gathered to other tire shops.
Some shops keep a wide selection of used tires for customers to buy for spares, or even to install as spares for people in need of a quick install until they can get a new set of tires.
Many tire shops are even willing to buy used tires that are able to be re-treaded and will pay good money for them!
There are a few stipulations, of course. The tires must be puncture-free and in decent shape, or they won’t be accepted. These tires usually aren’t able to be re-treaded, so they won’t be much use to the tire shops.
Like you did with recycling centers, take some time to call around to local tire shops and see what they might offer you for your tires.
They might give you a quote over the phone or ask you to bring the tires in so they can look over them and give you a price.
It’s a good idea to look up the market value of the tires you have in their new condition first, so you can at least get a basic idea of what they’d be worth new, and set your prices accordingly.
Of course, Craigslist is always a good place to sell things that you don’t have a need for. While you’re there, check out want ads to see if anyone is looking for tires already.
This can help you compare the tires you have to prices other people are getting for their tires so you don’t under or overvalue yours.
Facebook’s Marketplace is also a good place to list tires online.
You might find a local buyer in need of a spare for a decent price, or maybe even someone who does auto repair work on the side.
Facebook Marketplace lets you list items for free and you can share them between buying and selling groups or on your Facebook page to reach more potential buyers.
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Another, more fun, option is to consider recycling them yourself!
What I mean by that is this: there are a lot of really cool things that can be made from old tires!
You can make and sell tire swings as an additional side business. Even more than the traditional round swing with a rope, you can cut and paint the tire to look like a horse!
(For real, check out this awesome tutorial on Instructables.)
If you have a spare minute, head over to Pinterest to check out all the things people have made with old tires.
Simply search “old tires,” and you’ll see things like planters, see-saws, dog beds, and geodesic domes.
Create some really amazing custom projects and artwork, and you could find yourself with another lucrative business on your hands.
Go take a look at our list of Places to Sell Handmade Crafts Online for websites where you can sell your tire crafts.
You can use the used tires you collect as part of your own auto repair business out of your home or a rented shop.
If you know a lot about car repair, you can start your own business and hire other workers as you expand.
This is always a good business to get into and you can stand to get a lot of business if you keep your labor prices competitive.
Collecting and using used tires can help save you and your customers a lot of money over purchasing new ones when they’re not needed.
You can always store the ones you collect in a garage and use them for various vehicles that need a quick tire replacement or upsell them as extra spare tires to your customers with compatible vehicles.
Shredding tires is another possibility, although you’ll need to shell out a lot of money to get a tire shredding machine, so you might want to save this idea for a later time when you start expanding your business and can afford to invest in one.
A tire shredder shreds the rubber of tires to make a variety of materials, like landscaping mulch and soft playground surfaces.
In some cases, shredding makes it easier for manufacturers to break down rubber to make other materials, like glue.
Your business model can be configured in a couple of ways if you choose this route.
One, you might be able to package the shredded material and sell it to relevant businesses, like playground surfacing companies or landscapers.
You might also be able to sell it to fuel makers because shredded rubber can be used for some alternative fuels.
Asphalt making companies might also be able to use the shredded tires for road resurfacing, and shoe companies might be able to use them to manufacturer rubber soles for shoes.
There are a lot of potential options, but you’ll need to do your research to figure out what might work best for you, especially in your area.
Some companies focus on re-treading tires, turning used tires into practically new ones with gripping treads that customers can buy for a bit cheaper than a new set.
You might have some of these facilities near you and you don’t even realize it.
To do this, you’ll still need tires that are in relatively good shape and are repairable, meaning that they can’t have any punctures or tears that would render them useless even if they get new treads.
You can Google “tire retreading facility near me” to see if any of these companies exist in your area.
If you’re lucky, you might have a couple of options in your town that are willing to pay you for the tires you collect.
You won’t get the final sales price (the company will re-sell the tire) but you’ll at least get a few bucks out of each of your tires you turn in.
However, you can always pay to have the facility tread the tire, and then give it back to you to re-sell yourself.
There’s always the option of re-treading the tire yourself, too, which will save you a lot of money over getting them re-treaded.
But, this isn’t an easy process and you’ll need to have a good amount of knowledge to do it correctly, not to mention the right tools!
In most cases, professional equipment is necessary to do the job right, so I wouldn’t suggest re-treading tires if you don’t have the tools to do it with.
You might be able to come up with an agreement with a local repair shop to rent their re-treading equipment during specific hours, so you can do the job yourself and make a better profit.
Finally, you can check around your neighborhood to see if anyone has any used tires that they need hauled off.
Like I mentioned before, checking with local tire and repair shops should be your first step.
However, there might be people in your neighborhood who have spare tires they don’t need, or people who do some repair work out of their homes.
They might jump at the chance to have you haul away their tires for a lower cost than a recycling center might charge them.
Or, you can offer to do it for free and just take the money you’ll make when you re-sell them, turn them into crafts, or do whatever else you want with them to earn cash.
I know that this seems like a really strange business idea to many of you, but it’s real.
You absolutely can get paid to recycle used tires, sell them, or make something new with them.
The money you make from it depends on a lot of factors, though, mostly related to what you choose to do with them.
The goal should always be to spend as little as possible doing something to the tire in order to sell it.
Therefore, crafting could eat into your profits, depending on what you’re making and how much materials you need.
However, it could also give you an excellent return if you find that your projects are way more popular than you expected.
You might be able to sell a tire swing, for example, for $100, depending on the size of the tire!
But how much can you expect to make simply from reselling your recycling old tires?
It depends on the center, of course, but most do take a fee for each tire you bring there.
This is where it helps to come to a beneficial agreement with the auto shops from where you’re getting your tires.
Call the recycling centers first to ask about their fees.
Then, you can price your hauling accordingly.
If a recycling center charged $3 per tire to take it away, then you’ll want to charge the auto shop $6 or more per tire to pick them up and still get a decent profit.
Remember that you’ll need to take vehicle wear and tear and gas prices into consideration when you set your prices.
So, the truth is that this work can vary a lot, but if you’re smart about pricing whatever services you offer (this will take some time to get the hang of, as with any business venture), then you could end up making a full-time income with a part-time work schedule.
If you’re going to make a side business out of selling used or scrap tires, you’d better make sure that you have the equipment first.
You’re going to need a decent truck or another large vehicle to haul the tires from retail or individual locations and to the recycling center or re-treading location.
Another thing you might want to consider is creating a short-term storage plan for your tires.
Many centers will only accept tires at a certain number, like when you have accumulated 100 to recycle.
You’ll need somewhere to store the tires until you reach your quota.
Depending on how much time you are willing to invest, this could take a couple of days to a couple of weeks.
Finally, you’re going to want to think what you might do with tires you can’t sell right away.
As with any product, there are going to be a few duds that won’t sell. It would be extremely beneficial to have a plan in place for what you’ll do with the tires that won’t sell.
That’s where a lot of other ideas I listed for making money with your tires can come in handy.
It’s all about being creative!
You can, of course, bring them to a recycling center without getting paid for them, but the whole point is to make money, right?
I want to remind you not to throw away the rims or hubs of tires you might find.
These can also be sold, so you don’t want to get rid of anything that could potentially make you more money!
Re-selling tires that are in decent condition is likely to bring you the most money, but the other ideas I mentioned are perfect for filling in dry spells when you don’t have buyers.
Utilize the other ideas above to get the most out of your tires and don’t be afraid to get creative.
As the old saying goes, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
We know that our readers are always looking for the best ways to make real money from home, and this is one of those so-crazy-it-works ideas!
Old and scrap tires do major damage to our environment, as they will not degrade over time.
Rather than destroying our environment by tossing them in a landfill, you can make some money by recycling them.
Do good work, get good cash.
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On the one hand, it is not difficult to return old tires.
They can simply be thrown into a landfill if the problems of environmental pollution, as well as the growth of serious diseases, do not bother. But problems can also be viewed from other perspectives. Tire tires, even used ones, are raw materials. Quite a few useful items can be made from it, especially if there is a private house or summer cottage. Finally, instead of throwing it away, you can take your old tires to a collection point for money.
Contents of the article
Used tires are accepted by recycling industries for grinding. From the obtained raw materials, products are made, intended for for construction and economy. In addition, new tires are made from them.
The disposal of used tires can be carried out for money, free or with an admission fee. Interested in the first option, with two other problems do not occur. It is not worth counting on large sums, price range - from 50 to 150 rubles.
per tire, depending on its diameter (from 15 up to 22.5, respectively).
Prices vary by type of tires, as well as their quantity. For example, for 1 ton of non-studded rubber they pay 4 tr. If it is studded, the cost rises to 6 tr. Cameras are bought for 30 rubles. Accordingly, for a set of worn studded tires, along with cameras, you can get 720 rubles. The amount is small, especially if you need services for transporting tires to the place of reception.
Most profitable to change tires to get:
Preliminary it is necessary to specify in autoshops and technical services the availability of such promotions. Given that they have offers in accepting used tires come in constantly, they can suspend promotions for indefinite period. Then there is another option, where to hand over the old tires for money.
As noted earlier, tires are a good building material. His can be used for the following purposes:
Finally, vegetables are grown with their help in agriculture. It is enough to bury the tire in the ground, place seedlings in it. Thus, moisture is retained longer, yields increase. In addition, drinkers for domestic animals are made from tires.
All used as follows:
The second option will require ingenuity, organizational skills, and the ability to negotiate. But if during the search it was not possible to find enterprises where you can hand over tires for recycling for money, but on the contrary, they still require payment for services, then there is a reason to think about your own business.
For users of the Vyvoz.org website, we have compiled (and constantly updated) a list of organizations in large (and not only) Russian cities where you can return old tires for money or free of charge:
Moscow
St. Petersburg
Astrakhan
Barnaul
Vladivostok
Volgograd
Voronezh
Yekaterinburg
Izhevsk
Irkutsk
Kazan
Kaliningrad
Kemerovo
0002 Such an enterprise will require small investments - from 50 to 80 tr. Most of the money will be spent on renting premises, registering an organization, paying one or two employees, as well as advertising. A prerequisite is that the owner independently (at least for the first time) creates devices for agriculture and decor for yards. A license to collect and store recyclables is required.
Then a commercial offer is created, pages are drawn up in the most popular social networks. Targeting advertising in them is not expensive, it allows you to quickly reach the target audience.
Additionally, announcements are posted in rural areas, at dacha cooperatives, commercial offers are sent to management companies.
The production process consists of the following steps:
If the demand for rubber increases, you can offer to the population to hand over rubber for processing for money. In parallel is an agreement with a processing plant, where you can deliver in bulk unclaimed rubber. Such a business can bring from 50-70 to 300-500 tr. monthly. Depends on organizational owner's abilities.
By law, legal entities are required to report on the delivery of used tires for recycling.
The lack of documentary evidence leads to a fine for violating the rules for handling recyclables.
Therefore, business entities are required to apply to official processing manufacturer or its representative. At transfer of tires is issued:
In addition, the enterprise is working out an act in accordance with which tires are recognized as used. The commission decides on writing them off from the balance sheet of the enterprise and sending them for recycling.
Unlike businesses, individuals are not required to follow this procedure. But it is recommended to approach the disposal of tires in a responsible manner. Rubber decomposes for a long time, but being in the environment in the event of combustion is a source of dioxins that enter the air and then into the human body. Because of this, he can become seriously and even terminally ill.
Today, quite a lot of attention and time is paid to the issue of ecology and its safety. In order to protect nature from pollution, it is necessary to minimize the amount of garbage that is thrown into landfills, landfills, just left in the forest, etc., it is necessary to take measures to set up a system for collecting and processing such materials.
Now, special attention is given to those items that can be used as secondary raw materials for industrial production.
Nowadays, almost every person has his own car, or even several, and few people ask about the disposal of old tires, but in vain!
Obsolete car tires are a huge and heavy part of rubber waste, a high level of danger, and also a source of many years of environmental pollution.
Therefore, one way or another, they are subject to mandatory and necessary processing. Everyone has long known that things and objects made of rubber and plastic almost do not decompose in nature (this is a very long process).
Car tires are flammable, and if they catch fire, it will be quite difficult to put out the fire, and do not forget that this procedure - entails mass poisoning, because 35 liters of oil are spent in the composition of one tire during production, so it is approximately possible imagine what the consequences are going to be in the future. Moreover, burning - as one of the ways to recycle tires, is strictly prohibited in all countries of the world! After all, in the process of burning 1 ton of tires, about 500 - 700 kg of toxic substances and 300 kg of soot are released into the air, including chromium, and benzopyrene, and dioxin, and furan, and cadmium, and biphenyl, and anthracene, and pyrene, And much more. Although, it would seem, the banal storage of tires already leads to the release of harmful chemicals.
Just the same, tire dumps are an ideal place for such insects and rodents, which are brought by carriers of various infectious diseases.
Unfortunately, only about 10% of all tires are recycled in the Russian Federation. Our company recycles used tires into crumb rubber by mechanical crushing. This is the most environmentally friendly solution!
Secondary raw materials, which are obtained after recycling old tires, in the future, make it possible to produce mountains of necessary things and products that are sold both in industry and in human life.
Rubber crumb used:
And on the market - this is a fairly popular material, which is considered durable and stable in any bad weather, as well as with constant water ingress.
Car tires are also used to produce liquid fuel, powder, granules, chips, etc.
Reception of tires for recycling - carried out in every city, where, for example, there are car services (which often offer this service), or special rubber collection points. But for such services, of course, you will have to pay a certain amount of money, which will be used to deliver this material to the processing plant. Thus, many useful functions are performed, such as:
By the way, the backwaters themselves, which dispose of tires, are completely environmentally friendly! But as for products made from car tires, this is in great demand and popularity today! Today, in every yard, in almost every playground and in flowerbeds, and in school yards, etc.
