News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

Grant County officials in Kentucky are moving toward the official shutdown of a county tire shredder after questions about the future of local end-of-life tire handling. The development follows earlier public discussion over whether to continue investing in the equipment, including a prior request for funding to repair the shredder’s cutting deck. The issue affects how the county manages waste tires from residents and local retailers, and may require officials to rely more heavily on outside tire recycling or disposal providers. For local governments, the case highlights the operational and financial challenges of maintaining small-scale tire processing infrastructure while ensuring that end-of-life tires continue to move into responsible recycling, recovery or disposal channels.

Waste Energy Corp. has entered the final commissioning phase of its Midland Waste Conversion Infrastructure Campus in Texas, moving its first commercial waste conversion system toward targeted commissioning in mid-September 2026. The company said its lead commissioning engineer was scheduled to arrive in Midland on August 4 to begin final system integration, testing and startup activities. The milestone follows Waste Energy’s announcement that it had completed the first phase of the regulatory foundation for the campus. Once commissioning is completed, the Midland facility is expected to begin processing waste tire feedstock and producing marketable fuels, recovered carbon products, recyclable steel and other commodities. The project is part of the company’s Texas-first strategy to build scalable environmental infrastructure for diverting tire and plastic waste streams from landfills and converting them into saleable recovered materials.

The proposed cooperation includes adding capacity in Monterrey for the processing of an additional 1 million passenger tires and developing further tire recycling and pyrolysis facilities in other Mexican states, including Guadalajara. IVR said the partnership would use ProDynamics’ nationwide tire distribution network to access end-of-life tires and convert them into renewable products such as pyrolysis oil, carbon black, recycled steel and gas. The companies said the project is intended to reduce emissions from end-of-life tires that would otherwise end up in landfills while supporting circular economy solutions in the regions where ProDynamics operates.

The municipal asphalt campaign includes 38 planned interventions on public roads such as Camino del Molino and the streets Galicia, Grecia, Murcia, Luis Sauquillo and Andalucía. The works will cover interdistrict and local roads, as well as deteriorated roundabouts. The project includes milling and asphalt paving, along with complete repainting of road markings and curbs. The city said the works are intended to improve the road surface across several areas of Fuenlabrada.

The project is being implemented through SUAS reTire s.r.o., the joint venture responsible for the development, construction and operation of the Czech tire recycling plant. Pyrum previously formed the joint venture with SUAS Ecology s.r.o. and holds a 49% stake in the company.

Orzeł’s modernization plans are aligned with Industry 4.0 standards, which typically involve greater use of data, automation, robotics and connected production systems. In the recycling sector, such upgrades can support better traceability, lower operating costs and more reliable processing of end-of-life tires and related rubber waste.

CGW said around one-fifth of scrap tires in North Rhine-Westphalia are estimated to end up in illegal disposal or export. The project partners argue that many of these tires still contain value, either through remaining mileage, recoverable raw materials or potential use in circular tire applications.

The 2026 Briefing Day will open with a delegate welcome by TRA President Bill Clarke, followed by a keynote address from Tessa Munt MP. The programme will later include a session titled “Tire Recycling — Is Government Listening?” led by George Eustice, Director of Penbroath Ltd. and Defra Secretary of State from 2020 to 2022. TRA said the event will examine whether current public policy is sufficient to support domestic tire recycling and recovery. The association argues that the UK must move away from offshoring environmental liabilities and instead develop a higher-value circular economy for tire-derived rubber, steel and other recovered materials.

TRAC said the partnership is designed to support UT-PRON and Nigerian stakeholders as they work to build a sustainable ELT management system. The association said knowledge exchange and practical lessons from Canada’s experience can help support resource recovery and market development.