Benefits of Recycling Rubber For The Tire Industry

Have you ever heard the saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure?” In 2015, recycling is a very valuable practice. Sustaining earth and the many beautiful attractions it offers is very important. Recycling in it’s simplicity is defined as the procedure of making used, or unwanted products into new re-manufactured products. Products such as paper, plastic, and tin are very easily recycled and can be transformed into reusable materials, but there is another product that may go under the radar when it comes to the recycling process. Rubber can also be recycled easily and reused for many materials as well.

The Benefits

One of the more obvious benefits of recycling is to reduce the amount of natural resources we use. This helps preserve natural resources and protect them for future use. Recycling also prevents water and air pollution which in some places is a major issue. Because materials are brought to a recycling facility, they do not end up in areas that cannot support them such as river banks, lakes, and so on. Recycling rubber can be very beneficial for the environment and for society as well. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reclaiming or recycling rubber uses less energy than producing new rubber and limits the demand for new natural rubber. This helps eliminate rubber tree plantations expanding into sensitive natural habitats.

The Process

Rubber can be recycled using three different methods.

• The first is referred to as refurbishing. The most common example of refurbishing is the process of retreading tires.
• Second, rubber can be broken down and formed into an entirely new product.
• The third and final method is called incineration. An example of this is the process of breaking down tires to produce energy for manufacturing processes.

Recycling Tires, Why Bother?

Currently in the United States, more than half the rubber used each year is made into tires. Here is another impressive stat, the United States generates approximately one scrap tire for every person each year. 30 million are retreaded but the rest are left to be managed. Pollution and energy consumption both are reduced when tires are recycled which is one of the many benefits of recycling tires. Many valuable materials can be made from recycled tires including playground mulch, roadbed material, and running tracks however, the most common use is to reuse them as retread tires. Retread tires are frequently found on city buses, school buses, aircraft, and Postal service vehicles because they rotate the tires so often. Truck tires can be retreaded multiple times before no longer being useful. Passenger or light truck tires can be retreaded one time. For more information on how you can do your part to recycle rubber, visit northwestrubber.com or rdfrubber.com to view creative ways of the recycling process. To see how our retreading process works at TireRecappers, visit our page here.