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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.

Napajedla stud farm (Czech Republic) which is 130 years old is one of the best facilities in Europe. This stud farm brought up several famous winners and it bears a number of success stories in its history. Horses which were raised at the farm won races not only in Czech Republic and Slovakia, but also showed remarkable success in competitions in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Great Britain.

Granuband continues converting used tires into new rubber products. Granuband – a Dutch producer of various rubber products – develops and manufactures new circular rubber products from the end-of-life tires that have been collected and recycled by the company itself.

The third scientific AZuR Colloquium took place on October 10, 2024, on the Jülich campus of the Aachen University of Applied Sciences (FH Aachen) with high participation. Forty scientists from various universities, institutes, and disciplines came together to discuss current research findings and projects related to the sustainable reuse and recycling of end-of-life tires. The agenda included workshops, discussion panels, and keynote presentations on topics such as the pyrolytic utilization of end-of-life tire granulate, the use of old rubber granulates in flood protection, and the future of recovered carbon black (rCB) as a sustainable filler.

On March 10, 2021, Black Bear Carbon, the innovative company that recovers carbon black, oil and gas from end-of-life tire granulate, has announced in its press release its intention to build a factory at the Chemelot industrial park in Geleen. A previous factory in Nederweert, in a joint venture with tire recycler Kargro, was dismantled after a fire in February 2019. After an intensive period of two years, Black Bear Carbon is living up to its reputation as a technology pioneer with the development of a best-in-class factory in terms of process, safety and reliability. At the end of 2019, Black Bear Carbon announced that it was going to Rotterdam and made an energetic start towards that goal in 2020. In the course of 2020, timely realization of RCBNL turned out to be difficult to achieve due to the issue regarding nitrogen deposition rights. In close collaboration with Chemelot, the BBC has looked at the alternatives and decided to settle in the south of Limburg province.

Zeppelin Systems entered into another important partnership in the mechanical recycling sector on February 7, 2023. The Italian Technology group formed by RubberJet and Vertech specialized in recycling particularly large scrap tires, for example from trucks and construction and mining machinery. High-quality rubber recyclates are made from scrap tires measuring up to four meters in size, which can later be used to manufacture new tires. According to Zeppelin Systems, the patented and proprietary method is 100% environmentally friendly. According to current figures from the AZuR network (innovation forum for scrap tire recycling, of which Zeppelin Systems is a member), around 3.5 million tons of scrap tires are generated in Europe each year. In Germany alone, around 550,000 tons of scrap tires were accrued in 2021. If every scrap tire in Europe was recycled, around 2.45 million tons of CO2 emissions would be saved.

Environmental and social awareness is becoming the key element of the sustainable tire industry. End-of-life tires (ELTs) are one of the most abundant as well as the most attractive waste from an economic point of view. More than 30 million tons ELTs are generated worldwide annually (WBCSD, 2019) and this waste stream is growing dynamically.

By its nature, tire recycling and pyrolysis are capital-intensive businesses which require rather big investments to lay a foundation of successful production. The industry is constantly changing. Existing markets are under threat, other markets emerge. More than ever it is important to facilitate and support R&D efforts. Associations and businesses around the world work hard to protect existing and build new markets for the industry by developing new value-added products from the main output materials of the industry – recycled rubber granulates (crumb rubber), pyrolytic fuel oil and recovered carbon black (rCB).

For too long, end-of-life tires (ELTs) have been treated as trash and discarded. ELTs make up nearly 2% of the total global waste, and an estimated one billion ELTs are discarded yearly. This waste flow is growing dramatically year after year. But businesses follow circular economy principles, they begin to view this trash as an opportunity. Through chemical pyrolysis, ELTs can be broken down into reusable commodities like recovered Carbon Black, recovered Pyrolysis Oil, and recovered Steel.