Crumb rubber is versatile, finding use in sport surfaces like playgrounds and athletic tracks, automotive parts such as bumpers and floor mats, and construction applications including flooring and waterproofing. It also plays a key role in geotechnical and asphalt applications, enhancing roads, drainage pipes, and soil conditioning.
It is long been known that the disposal of used tires and other rubber articles represents a major environmental problem insofar as used tires overwhelm waste disposal sites and indiscriminate discarding of tires and like rubber articles create major environmental problems. It is for this reason that processes have been developed to dispose of tires in a manner that not only eliminates them as an environmental problem but provides incentives for practice of those tire disposal processes.