LEC Partners

August 20, 2022 Tire and rubber recycling, and disposing of tires generally, have historically been very challenging due to the worldwide volume, rubber’s robust durability, and the ecological implications of tires in landfills. In years past, billions of tires have filled landfills. The US alone sends between 246 million and 300 million end-of-life tires to waste annually. However, thirty-eight states have banned whole tires from landfills, thirty-five allow shredded tires only to be placed in landfills. Eleven states have banned all tires from landfills. We don’t want them in landfills because they take up valuable space, they don’t stay buried, and they trap gases like methane and then bubble up and rip through landfill liners. The real problem with tires is that their tough, durable construction, which we like when they are on our cars, is exactly what makes it challenging to recycle them. But, they can (and are) being recycled – at the rate of millions per year. Technology has advanced to the point that old tires can now be profitably recycled into many useful products. But the sheer volume of tires discarded each year makes their safe disposal difficult. Thanks to these advances in technology, it is now possible to completely reduce a tire to its basic components – carbon black, steel, fiber, crumb rubber, and oils. This pyrolysis method for recycling used tires involves the tire or its shred, being put into an oxygen-free reactor where the rubber is softened, and the rubber polymers break down into smaller molecules. These and other advances are turning historically problematic waste, like tires and plastics, into useful products.

Among its 150+ experts, LEC Partners has a wide range of services in bioenergy, biomaterials and chemicals, biotechnologies, and feedstocks. We certainly have specialists in pyrolysis and tire recycling. In fact, we have experts in man technologies, including anaerobic digestion, biomass technologies, fermentation, gasification, catalysis, torrefaction, carbonization, bioreactors, renewable hydrogen & renewable natural gas technologies, carbon capture & storage, waste to energy technologies, wastewater and water treatment, gas-to liquids, hydrothermal and thermochemical conversions, syngas generation, bioplastics/polymers, fluidization, Fischer-Tropsch, direct combustion and power generation technologies, bio-fabricated proteins, synthetic biology, nutraceuticals, food products technology, aquaculture, and many other types of emerging technologies in the chemical, renewable/cleantech, and synthetic biology sectors.

Take a look at our experts and the services we provide. You will note that most of our experts are also available for ancillary engagements and advice, for specialty engagements like serving as expert witnesses in litigation matters.