Japanese tire and rubber giant Bridgestone Corp. is upgrading its systems that work with rubber granulate made out of waste tires to use it as an additive in cement, according to the company’s manager Ashoke Karmokar.

Karmokar believes that applying rubberized cement for geotechnical and civil purposes could assist the recycling industry in circular economy advancement.

Bridgestone suggest using rubber granulate to produce dredged clay that has sealing and filling properties, thus boosting cement’s durability and reducing absorptivity. Bridgestone has conducted trials of rubberized clay finding that clay modified with rubber granulate could be used for structures under deformation as cracks formed exclusively around the rubber, therefore they could “prevent the growth of wide cracks”, according the Bridgestone’s manager.

The tested mixture was made with 280% water-content that was added to dredged clay gathered from the Tokyo Bay zone. Moreover, it contained scrap tire derived granulated rubbers.

Article by Bridgestone.