According to the Washington-based Recycled Rubber Coalition (RRC), which operates with support from the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA), most end-of-life tires were dumped in landfills or illegally discarded in the 1990s. Additionally, Stratton Kirton, vice president of government affairs at Pittsburgh-based Liberty Tire Recycling, says the U.S. had 1 billion tires sitting on the ground by the end of that decade.