Liberty Tire Recycling and Walmart win Recircle Award for Circular Economy Innovation

Liberty Tire Recycling, a Pittsburgh-based tire recycling company, has been honored with the 2025 Recircle Circular Economy Award in recognition of its collaboration with Walmart that uses closed-loop recycling.

The award acknowledges the partnership that has established a circular system to collect, recycle and transform end-of-life tires into consumer products and infrastructure solutions.

For over two decades, Liberty has worked with Walmart to create practical, market-viable circular economy solutions that demonstrate sustainability leadership across the retail and recycling industries.

"This award represents what's possible when companies commit to reimagining traditional waste streams as valuable resources," says Amy Brackin, senior vice president of sustainability at Liberty. "Our work with Walmart has created a true circular model where tires collected from their stores return as products consumers can use to improve their homes and gardens, all while keeping millions of tires out of landfills."

The collaboration began with basic tire collection services from Walmart locations but evolved approximately six years ago when Liberty began manufacturing consumer products from recycled tires and selling them back through Walmart's retail channels. Today, shoppers can purchase a range of recycled rubber products in Walmart stores, including rubber mulch, garden edging, patio tiles and other lawn and garden items.

"We believe that every tire has more than one life to give," Brackin says. "Working with Walmart allows us to close the loop in a highly visible way that demonstrates circular economy principles to millions of consumers. When people talk about circular recycling, this is exactly what it's all about."

According to Liberty, the company collects over 215 million used tires annually with an 81.1 percent recovery rate, making tire recycling one of the highest recycled product categories in the country. The company has set a zero-waste goal by 2030, committing to finding every end-of-life tire a home.

A recent showcase project at Walmart store No. 101 in Rolla, Missouri, highlights the initiative's approach to sustainability. The companies collaborated to repave a portion of the store's parking lot with rubberized asphalt that incorporated more than 1,200 end-of-life tires from Walmart stores, 420 gallons of used motor oil from Walmart service centers, and 170 tons of reclaimed asphalt. This triple-win solution extends the parking lot's lifespan while demonstrating creative reuse of multiple material streams.

The Recircle Awards, established to recognize excellence in sustainable practices within the tire and rubber industry, selected the Liberty-Walmart partnership from a competitive field of global applicants. The Circular Economy Award specifically honors initiatives that keep materials in use, design out waste and pollution and regenerate natural systems.

Liberty continues to explore new applications for recycled rubber, aiming to replace virgin materials with recycled content across more product categories. This approach aligns with both companies' broader commitments to sustainability.

"We are proud to be the leader in recycling tires, but we won't be satisfied until we recycle every tire we collect," Brackin says. "Working with forward-thinking retailers like Walmart committed to regenerative growth is critical to helping us reach that goal."