In the United Sates, an average of one tire per citizen is discarded annually -- that's a third of a billion, just in one year.

Being a single molecule, a tire can't be melted down or turned into something else. Unless physically shredded or worn down by 60,000 miles of friction, both entailing significant energy, it remains round. Tires drive landfill operators crazy, because when buried, they encircle a doughnut-shaped air bubble that wants to rise. Most garbage dumps no longer accept them, but for hundreds of years into the future, old tires will inexorably work their way to the surface of forgotten landfills, fill with rainwater, and begin breeding mosquitoes again.

That's from The World Without Us.

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