Liberty Tire Recycling, the only coast-to-coast, full-service tire recycler, announced Tuesday it is opening two new facilities in Alabama, following the state’s decision to end the practice of landfilling whole tires. These new facilities will develop innovative, economic uses for waste tires and provide the infrastructure Alabama needs to manage waste tires responsibly, the company shared.
Liberty will open a facility in the Mobile area in early 2026 to serve southern and central Alabama and will announce a second facility in north Alabama next year. These investments will allow Liberty to provide service to the state’s population centers and rural communities. These new facilities will produce tire-derived fuel—a low-emissions fuel source used by pulp and paper facilities and cement kilns—and create up to 60 well-paying jobs with excellent benefits in Alabama. Liberty’s north Alabama location will also produce rubber feedstock that will be converted into crumb rubber and used in manufacturing.
Edward Poolos, director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, said, “Recycling and reuse are vitally important to Alabama’s environment and economy. We are excited to welcome Liberty Tire Recycling to Alabama and look forward to working with them.”
Liberty’s new footprint in Alabama will give it the capacity to process over four million tires in the state and enable it to serve communities in Alabama, Mississippi and North Florida. This announcement strengthens Alabama’s growing position as a leader in the recycling space.
In 2024, Alabama decided to phase out the practice of landfilling whole waste tires over the next several years. Currently, Alabama is the only state in the southeast that allows the landfilling of whole waste tires. The result is tires that could otherwise be recycled into beneficial products end up in Alabama landfills, taking up valuable landfill space and creating breeding grounds for mosquitos. This practice also results in millions of waste tires from surrounding states being dumped in Alabama, placing an unfair burden on the state and its citizens.
“We are very excited to enhance the recycling footprint in Alabama. 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,” said Thomas Womble, CEO of Liberty Tire Recycling.
Liberty already collects waste tires in Alabama and recycles them at its facilities in adjoining states. These new investments will help the company partner with retailers, tire manufacturers and local governments in Alabama to manage and recycle the millions of waste tires the state produces each year, creating jobs and boosting the local economy.
In addition to tire-derived fuel, Liberty also produces consumer goods, asphalt mixes, rubber aggregate and playground materials made from recycled rubber. The company also supplies recycled rubber feedstock to American manufacturers and steel wire for recycled steel products.
Liberty is the leading tire recycler in North America with operations in every state, Puerto Rico and western Canada. The company runs 60 facilities across North America and has thousands of partnerships with tire manufacturers, retailers, and state and local governments to ensure end-of-life tires are collected and recycled appropriately.
