Disposal of the huge piles of used tires is increasingly becoming a problem all over the world. Incineration may utilize the energy content of waste tires, but it is associated with the generation of SO2, NOx and other hazardous emissions. Pyrolysis is an alternative disposal method with the possibility for recovery of valuable products from used tires. Recently, waste processing technology based on plasma processes has received much attention due to a number of advantages such as high treatment rate, small space volume, etc. In this paper, the pyrolysis of waste tire using a capacitively coupled radio-frequency （RF） plasma reactor was investigated. The lab-scale RF plasma reactor was operated with RF powers between 1 600 W and 2 000 W, pressures between 3 000 Pa and 8 000 Pa （ absolute pressure） and temperatures between 1 200 K and 1 800 K. In the tire powder pyrolysis experiments, two product streams are obtained： combustible gas and char. The physical properties （surface area, porosity, particle morphology） as well as chemical properties （elemental composition, heating value and surface functional groups） of char were examined to exploit the potential applications of the char. The results indicate that the RF plasma pyrolysis would be a useful technology for waste disposal
