Liberty Tire Recycling to open 2 facilities in Alabama

The week of Nov. 3, Liberty Tire Recycling announced plans to open two new facilities in Alabama in response to the state’s decision to end the practice of landfilling whole tires.

According to Pittsburgh-based Liberty, the new facilities will develop innovative, economic uses for scrap tires and provide what it says is necessary infrastructure in Alabama to manage scrap tires responsibly.

The company plans to open the first facility in the Mobile area in early 2026 to serve southern and central Alabama. The second facility is planned for north Alabama, and more details about its location are expected later next year.

Liberty will produce tire-derived fuel at the new facilities, while the north Alabama location also will produce rubber feedstock to be converted into crumb rubber for use in manufacturing.

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“We are very excited to enhance the recycling footprint in Alabama,” Liberty CEO Thomas Womble says. “Our new locations, and the investments they represent, mean we are even better positioned to meet the needs and recycling initiatives of manufacturers and our other recycling partners.”

Last year, Alabama officials decided to phase out the practice of landfilling whole scrap tires over the next few years, with the practice officially set to end after Dec. 31, 2027. After that, whole tires, at minimum, must be shredded or cut into thirds or smaller pieces prior to disposal.

Alabama is one of the only states in the Southeast that allows the landfilling of whole scrap tires, which Liberty says results in tires that could otherwise be recycled into beneficial products ending up in landfills and creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes as well as “millions of waste tires” from surrounding states being dumped in Alabama.

“Recycling and reuse are vitally important to Alabama’s environment and economy,” Alabama Department of Environmental Management Director Edward Poolos says. “We are excited to welcome Liberty Tire Recycling to Alabama and look forward to working with them.”

Liberty says its new footprint in Alabama will give it the capacity to process more than 4 million tires in the state and enable it to serve communities in Alabama, Mississippi and northern Florida. The company already collects tires in Alabama and recycles them at its facilities in nearby states.

Along with tire-derived fuel, Liberty also produces consumer goods, asphalt mixes, rubber aggregate and playground materials made from recycled rubber and supplies recycled rubber feedstock to U.S. manufacturers and steel wire for recycled steel products. It currently operates 60 facilities across North America and reports more than 215 million tires collected and processed annually.