Tire Recycling - Uses

Uses

Tires can be recycled into, among other things, the hot melt asphalt, typically as crumb rubber modifier—recycled asphalt pavement (CRM—RAP), and as an aggregate in portland cement concrete Tires can also be recycled into other tires. Tires have also been cut up and used in garden beds as bark mulch to hold in the water and to prevent weeds from growing. There are some "green" buildings that are being made both private and public buildings that are made from old tires.

Pyrolysis can be used to reprocess the tires into fuel gas, oils, solid residue (char), and low-grade carbon black, which cannot be used in tire manufacture. A pyrolysis method which produces activated carbon and high-grade carbon black has been suggested.

Recent developments in devulcanization enable dealing with substantial volumes, taking 40 mesh whole tire crumb and converting it into value-added compounds without degrading the polymer and without generating any pollution. This new generation in devulcanization technologies operates with very high productivity while maintaining a low energy footprint. The compounds produced from processed tire scrap can be blended with virgin rubber compounds, maintaining performance while substantially reducing the raw material cost. The substantial economies of scale and value addition now make it possible to make burning of tires entirely unnecessary.