On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 03:27:49 -0800, (Jan Flora)
wrote:

In article , zxcvbob
wrote:

I've wondered for years why old tires were not ground up, the steel
removed with magnets, and the rubber mixed with crude oil at the refineries.

In Europe, I've heard that they're mixing ground up old tires in asphaltic
concrete for road surfaces, with really good results.

This page has a good deal of general information on tire recycling.

http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumeri...riefs/ee9.html

It seems that while they *can* be reused/recycled, many of the
processes are just too expensive to be practical. Although, like
certain 'oil recovery' operations, when the price of an end-product
rises, some methods *do* become worth investing in.