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A company from Auckland, New Zealand, is giving new life to scrap tire rubber mixed with plastic waste, which would otherwise end up being stockpiled or landfilled. Using an up-to-date technology, the company is turning the materials into a base for sports fields. Ecocept reports that it produces synthetic turf underlayer pads from a mix of ground plastics and old car tires, replacing the traditional rock and rubber sports pads beneath synthetic turf.

In August 2020, the Portuguese Technical Commission CT-181 “Produtos reciclados de pneus” (Recycled Products from Tires) sent its official response to the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) with regard to ECHA’s proposed restrictions for the use of crumb rubber in synthetic turf sports fields. Earlier in 2019 and 2020, ECHA proposed an outright ban on crumb rubber use where the particle size was <5mm or a thread length was <15mm. This recommendation to the European Commission was to include a six-year adoption period from 2021.

An online magazine sportsfields.info focused on technology and business aspects of synthetic turf fields recently published an article criticising EU's decision to ban crumb rubber infill in artificial turf. Indeed, this month's announcement by the European Commission that it will recommend a ban on the sale of polymeric infill within six years and ignore the difference so-called risk management measures can make, has been met with disbelief and outright anger by some organisations in the industry.

This post is a summary of numerous researches and articles published by European and American research institutions. Dozens of independent researches carried out in Europe and U.S. throughout the past decade inferred that tire-derived rubber infill in the artificial turf poses no threat to human health. Researchers assert unanimously that exposure of athletes’ skin to crumb rubber infill on stadiums and playgrounds yields no elevated risk of cancer. As the issue has been assuming additional importance, it achieved the level of the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) which, together with the European Committee of Standardization, carried out comprehensive researches about crumb rubber exposure on human health.

A new US research on synthetic turf fields that contain tire-derived crumb rubber has found that the material posed no risk to human health. The investigation commenced in 2016 and was run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The two authoritative bodies worked in association with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Even though studies and researches on the safety of tire-derived crumb rubber infill in artificial turf prove there is ho hazard to human health, debates over the issue are going further. In the beginning of March, Rubber and Plastic News reported that a bill before the Maryland General Assembly had added a new dimension to the controversy surrounding tire-derived crumb rubber used as infill in synthetic athletic turf.

Every year, approximately 150 million tires are processed for recycling in Europe. This rubber from recycled tires has several useful applications, including being a crucial component of the artificial turf used in playgrounds, football fields, and road construction. The European Recycling Industries Federation (EuRIC), the Spanish Federation for Recovery and Recycling (FER), and the Collective Management System for End-of-Life Tyres in Spain (SIGNUS) have all issued statements warning of the significant consequences of the European Commission's proposal to ban the use of rubber crumb, a byproduct of tyres that have reached the end of their useful lives, on artificial turf fields without taking into account alternative, equally effective policies with less negative environmental effects.

Good news came from the answer to the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) from the Portuguese team members of the CEN/TC 366, department responsible for the standardization of recycled materials obtained from end-of-life tires (ELT) of European Committee of Standardization, on how crumb rubber affects human health.

Recently published by Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge Order1522/2021 defines end-of-waste criteria for recycled rubber from end-of-life tires, opening up new market options for these materials.