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Recycling tires into materials such as steel-free crumb rubber and fine rubber powder used to be a profitable venture; however, due to market saturation in developed economies, tire recycling companies might want to shift their focus from raw materials to potentially higher-priced consumer goods made from recycled rubber or even virgin rubber which can be replaced by tire-derived materials. The first and so far one of the most viable choices of tire recyclers would be investing in presses and molds to produce molded goods from crumb rubber or rubber powder. Another options include more complex technologies, e.g. blending recycled rubber powder with polyethylene or polypropylene to produce thermoplastic elastomers (TPE).

The innovative road pavement made will be used by Italian Army. Ecopneus reports that the pavement using the recycled rubber from end-of-life tires (ELT) will allow greater safety and durability than traditional materials and will reduce the road traffic noise by up to 5 db. The Logistics Commander of the Army, General of the Army Corps Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, and the General Director of Ecopneus, Giovanni Corbetta, signed a framework agreement for the construction of urbanization works with high performance crumb rubber reducing environmental impact.

A Greater Manchester start-up company has launched the first of a range of products aimed at reducing waste from end-of-life vehicle tyres, supported by the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre’s (GEIC) ERDF Bridging the Gap programme at The University of Manchester. In conjunction with the GEIC, Dr Vivek Koncherry developed SpaceMat – a flooring product that uses graphene to improve dramatically the performance of recycled tyre rubber compared to previous efforts.

Ecopneus – an Italian end-of-life tire management authority – reports that over 220 thousand tons of end of life tires were collected by Ecopneus in 2019 which is 5% bigger compared to the authority’s official target. Ecopneus says their work helped avoid 371 thousand tons of emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere and return 337 thousand tons of material into the production loop. In addition, the authority mentions that it helped reduce imports of raw materials for 112 million euros. The end-of-life tire management system is referred to as a sector of excellence for the development of the country's circular economy and for environmental protection.

PROs collaborate with service providers on behalf of tire manufactures. They manage collection and recovery of scrap tires, and can help with research and development. eTracks, incorporated by the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada (TRAC), is one of the PROs functioning in Ontario and it’s responsible for 80 percent of collection and recovery obligations. Ontario now tends to view end-of-life tires mostly as resources rather than waste as it’s possible to process them and get valuable products such as crumb rubber, ground rubber, modified asphalt, gravel substitute. In addition, recycled products can be then used for construction projects, or in paving flooring and so much more.

A number of tests and scientific research in Italy have shown that rubber obtained via tire recycling presents a more comfortable horse-riding experience and offers sustainably improved equestrian arena management. In addition, recycled rubber is more cost-efficient, can protect the horse’s joints and result in less dust in the air compared to conventional flooring with sand, according to the tests.

Italian waste tire management authority Ecopneus launched development of a new matting merchandise that contains recycled tire rubber; the development was created in association with the country’s military service, CEMIVET, that supports equine units. However, the product can also be used outside military applications. The company´s general manager stressed that the new product is in line with the principles of sustainability and circular business model.

According to the company’s chairman, tire retreading sector creates huge amounts of tire waste and this material is one of the firm’s dominant products for exports as it can be successfully recycled to produce crumb rubber infill for sport fields, tire-derived oil, molded products for flooring, insulation panels and even shoe soles.

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.