Tyres & Rubber
We’re all about industrial raw materials, not waste outlets of last resort
Recent years have seen a gathering momentum away from purely “traditional” outlets for our products and towards higher-added-value channels, and we certainly maintained this direction of travel in 2025. The tyres and rubber recycling industry is continuing to scale rapidly but its next leap forward will depend on more than just pure tonnage; it will depend too on quality, traceability and application-driven specifications.
The growth we are seeing is real, but the value is coming from higher-grade outputs and clearer market positioning.
Our recycling sector’s worth is projected to expand substantially over the coming years, with particularly strong growth foreseen in reclaimed rubber for higher-value uses. For the BIR Tyres & Rubber Committee, this supports our long-held position: recycled rubber, reclaimed rubber and recovered carbon black (rCB) must be framed as “industrial raw materials” with performance standards, and not as waste outlets of last resort.
Transitioning from traditional outlets to high-added-value channels
The recent surge in recycling developments has dovetailed with the transition of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards from “nice-to-have” to commercial necessity. For many customers, brand commitments to “green” goals and credible certification are decisive factors in any purchasing decision.
A key conclusion from our Committee’s meeting in Bangkok last October was that rubber recycling is not as simple as a one-to-one substitution of virgin materials. Cost and performance constraints are real, and so ESG-driven demand signals and brands’ willingness to pay for verified recycled content are now essential to the scaling-up of higher-value recycling. The meeting underlined how Asia and many other parts of the world are witnessing a growing emphasis on third-party certification and auditable claims via ISO, ISCC, GRS or equivalent schemes as a route to “de-risking” recycled rubber purchasing decisions for OEMs and consumer brands.
Guest speaker Asmipudin Mohd Ali Jinnah, whose Malaysia-based company Bridge Fields Resources produces two recycled materials based on recovered latex, emphasised the importance of securing certification to prove the enterprise’s sustainability credentials, noting that his country was transitioning from voluntary ESG disclosures to mandatory plans by 2030. The breadth of recycling developments was illustrated by fellow guest Anansinee Thaboon of Greenergy One in Thailand, which recovers carbon black from tyres and adds graphene to generate materials for battery manufacturers.
ESG standards: from voluntary disclosures to commercial necessity
The gathering in Bangkok highlighted how take-back systems and advanced reclamation are enabling genuine circular models, rather than just downcycling. It showcased real-world examples of closed-loop approaches, especially in Asia, where recycling strategies are being built around take-back systems, higher-quality reclaimed rubber streams and industrial customer requirements. It was demonstrated that reclaimed rubber can reach higher-value applications – such as footwear components and industrial products - when the process is designed for consistency and performance. As mentioned on previous occasions, the sector will only be able to achieve durable market growth if its supply structure is robust and the quality and purity of its outputs are controllable and repeatable.
A technical thread running through the Bangkok meeting was the need to keep pushing solutions around rubber circularity challenges such as cross-linking and devulcanisation constraints so that end-products can be designed for second-life reuse and recycling rather than becoming a dead end.
In 2025, rCB continued its impressive transition from “promising” to “strategic”, broadening its story into next-generation materials and new value chains. Our discussions last year focused on upgrading and purifying rCB to meet ever-higher specifications and integrating it into new, premium markets. In Bangkok, a direct connection was drawn between rCB innovation and ESG standards, as well as to applications “beyond tyres” such as the potential for rCB plus graphene-type developments aimed at higher-performance end-uses such as in electric vehicles.
The clear takeaway is that rCB must compete with virgin carbon black on quality, price and environmental performance. Achieving this will require standardisation and reliable specifications, allied to sustainability claims that are at once credible and backed by evidence.
The strategic evolution of recovered carbon black
While technological advances are increasing the number of market possibilities, outlets are also being reshaped by regulatory pressures. Our meeting in Bangkok reiterated how some of our sector’s traditional outlets – such as waste-to-energy and artificial turf – were being increasingly questioned on environmental grounds.
Therefore, it is even more urgent that we scale up emerging alternatives such as higher-value reclamation, devulcanisation and rCB-focused pathways. At the same time, we must accelerate developments that prioritise material recycling and the opening up of new regional markets to avoid stockpiling. 2025 was another year of progress for recycling tyres and rubber, but the pace of change cannot be allowed to drop.
“The sector will only be able to achieve durable market growth if its supply structure is robust and the quality and purity of its output is controllable and repeatable.”
Max Craipeau
IMPORTANT FACTS
The most important use of rubber is in vehicle tyres; over 70% of all the world’s rubber ends up wrapped around the wheels of cars, bicycles and trucks. Other applications are industrial rubber goods used in, for example, construction, aircraft, footwear and gloves.
With over a billion cars and commercial vehicles already in use worldwide, end-of-life tyres (ELTs) are among the largest sources of waste today. Tyres made of approximately 80% rubber compound, steel and textiles are built to last, which in turn makes them a very challenging product to recycle.
Historically, the difficulty in recycling has led to uncontrolled or illegal scrap tyre disposal, but with the formation of national ELT management companies such as Aliapur and Signus, and also the development of new end markets for tyre-derived materials, ELTs are increasingly diverted from landfills as the tyre recycling industry continues to grow.
In 2018, over 3 million tonnes of ELTs were recovered in Europe, representing a treatment rate above 96%. Taken together, Europe, the USA and Japan have an average recovery rate of 90%.
MATERIAL RECOVERY
For both tyres and non-tyre rubber scrap, the material recovery technologies are usually the same.
Sorting: As with all other waste streams, it is important to segregate scrap according to type and to process separately to ensure the highest quality output.
Retreading: During the sorting process, tyres which still have quality casings are sent to retreaders where they are given a second life (and sometimes more) by replacing the worn tread with a new one.
Shredding: Tyres whose casings are damaged are usually sent to a shredder for size-reduction. ELT shredders are usually smaller than those used to process end-of-life vehicles but, nevertheless, they have to be extremely robust to handle such durable materials. By downsizing tyres and other rubber scraps, many recycling opportunities are opened up.
Metal separation: Rubber scrap, especially ELTs, are commonly embedded with metal and require ferrous or non-ferrous separation using magnets and/or eddy-current technologies.
Granulation: Granulators are widely used in the rubber recycling industry to further reduce the dimensions of the shredded tyres after metal separation and to produce quality rubber granules.
Pulverization: For more technical uses, rubber granules can be pulverized at ambient or cryogenic temperatures in order to produce micronized rubber powder.
APPLICATIONS
For ELTs following the material recovery route, applications are endless but rarely follow the circular economy model. This is contrary to what is happening in other waste streams such as plastics and metals.
Applications depend mostly on dimensions:
Tyres also contain significant amounts of steel wiring which can be fully recovered and used as raw material by the steelmaking sector.
ELTs following the energy recovery route are basically used as alternative fuel.
Steering Committee
