New Technology Recycles Old Tires and Concrete into New Building Blocks
December 1st, 2009 by Tina Casey
Scrap tires and scrap concrete are two of the most common – and most irritating – waste materials in the world, and now a company called PMGI/Productive Recycling has found a way to recycle both at the same time. The company’s patent-pending technology compresses waste tires and concrete into building blocks.
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Productive Recycling calls its product T-Blocks. They are primarily used outdoors, in landscaping. In a sustainability twofer, they can be used in wetlands reconstruction, erosion control, and other projects related to natural stormwater management and wastewater control.
Productive Recycling
The company’s website is still under construction, but it provides a look at the potential for re-using literally mountains of waste in environmental construction projects. According to an article in recyclingtimes.com, each T-Block weighs 1800 pounds or more and takes up to 40 used tires to manufacture.
Old Concrete and Waste Tires
Next to water, concrete is the most-consumed product on earth, and its manufacture involves a huge carbon footprint. A safe, durable alternative to new concrete is a big gain. Meanwhile, according to the U.S. EPA, every year almost 190 million scrap tires are burned for fuel or used whole in civil engineering projects, and 35 million are recycled into new products including playground surfaces and even rubber sidewalks. Productive Recycling is not the only U.S. company discovering gold in those mountains of scrap tire. Magnum D’Or has its own proprietary recycling process and is busily chewing its way through one of the world’s largest tire dumps in Hudson, Colorado. The resulting tire crumbs are recycled into…what else, new tires.
Image: Truck tire by bmb on flickr.com.
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About the Author
Tina Casey Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.
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