First on the road, then in the road
Worldwide road traffic is increasing and so too the number of used tires that accumulate every year: a breathtaking 19.3 million tons! In light of this, recycling should be a matter of course. But most tires end their lives as a substitute fuel, for example in cement plants. The second problem: as road traffic increases, the load on the road surface increases – and as a result, the cost of maintenance too.
Asphalt is a mixture of rock granules with bitumen as a binder. Asphalt, which has to last for a long time, has to be hard and resilient, but at the same time it has to remain permanently elastic in order to compensate for differences in temperature and load. The elasticity and thus the durability of road surfaces can be significantly improved by adding rubber. If this rubber were to be extracted from old tires, it would be a win-win situation.
