An innovative bitumen that contains recycled rubber retrieved from end-of-life tires has been used to create around 3,000 square meters of asphalt in Italy. It is believed that this surfacing will significantly reduce the noise of passing vehicles.

The General Manager of Ecopneus Federico Dossena stressed that the organization is committed to the idea of spreading the innovative road solution. He called paving with modified asphalts ´a valid strategic choice for the national and urban road network´.

Currently, Italy has around 600 km of roads that contain recycled rubber powder. The researchers claim that if you add recycled rubber extracted from waste tires to the bitumen for asphalts, the road will demonstrate improved performance in comparison with traditional surfacing. It can also greatly cut the noise produced by the passing vehicles.

At the national level from 2011 to today Ecopneus handled 2,220,090 tons of scrap tires in Italy and conducted around 700 thousand collection initiatives.

In Sicily only, over the last decade, more than 19 million scrap tires have been collected and recycled by Ecopneus, the non-profit company that gives second life to scrap tires in Italy.

Italy is not the only country that relies on the innovative bitumen. Sweden, the USA and other OECD countries have been using waste tires to develop their roads for over 50 years.

Information by Ecopneus.