Illinois turns to tire-derived fuel: new facilities could eliminate scrap tire problem.

Already running what many consider the best scrap tire management program in the U.S., the State of Illinois recently sanctioned two private-sector projects that may eventually turn the waste products into a prized commodity.

Grants worth nearly $1.5 million have been issued to Waste Recovery-Illinois and the Illinois Power Co. for developing a system that will process millions of tires a year into one-inch chips that can be burned with coal to produce energy.

A major step in that direction was taken recently when ground was broken on a tire-shredding plant at Marseilles, Ill.

"Though we are attentive to all possible uses for scrap tires," says Alan …