The use of recycled tyre rubber crumb in engineered products has been gaining popularity in recent years, and is set to grow further. Initially limited to use in composite materials and in flooring and sports fields, the push for lower CO2 supply chains and a desire to reduce production of new plastics, has highlighted the value of this material in building a wider variety of durable, low cost products and components to service the renewable industry and its wider supply chain. PES spoke to specialised rubber engineering house TCT to better understand what the industry is developing.
Tyre rubber crumb is a by-product of the tyre recycling process. Scrap tyres are cleaned, metal and fabric removed and the remaining vulcanised rubber material shredded into small pieces. These are then processed into various sizes, from powders through various sizes of granules which can be used in a very wide variety of applications. In the EU-27 in 2020, 1.5 million tonnes of tyres were processed for material outputs.
