Have you ever gone to get new tires on your car and wondered why you had to pay such a high price to just get rid of the old tires? Well if you knew that more than 300 million scrap tires are generated each year just in the U.S., it probably makes more sense why such strong efforts are made to not just dump these tires, but recycle them instead. Even with recycling efforts, however, about one quarter of all scrap tires still end up in city dumps each year. Not only do tires take up a lot of space, but they also don’t decompose like other, more organic trash does over time. To combat this problem, more and more innovative companies throughout the world are finding uses for recycled rubber. Not only is it an eco-friendly choice, but it’s also much more cost-effective in the long run. Because rubber is so durable, using recycled material versus raw material really doesn’t make a difference. One use of recycled rubber that’s becoming more popular is for residential and commercial flooring. If you’ve recently walked into a gym, grocery store, school, or even a residential garage, there’s a good chance you’ve walked across recycled rubber flooring several times. This material comes in different patterns and colors, but all of it provides the same basic benefits:
- Recycled rubber flooring is extremely durable, and is generally expected to last 20-30 years.
- It’s a low-maintenance and convenient option for high-traffic areas. It doesn’t need to be sealed like concrete or tile, and doesn’t require intensive cleaning like carpet does.
- It also provides an element of physical comfort that flooring like concrete and tile can’t. There’s cushioning with recycled rubber flooring that is beneficial for employee comfort and also useful in areas such as gyms or weight rooms.
How is it made? The first step in making rubber flooring is of course utilizing ground up rubber tires, which is made with machinery like we offer here at Eco Green Equipment. The ground up tire material is added to a vat with other materials like color chips and a binder that holds the material together. Once all is heated and combined, the vat is capped and cooled, which produces one large cylinder of solid rubber. It’s then shaved into long sheets, square tiles, or even inter-locking tiles that are usually 1/8 to ½ inch thick. This makes for great customizable options and sizes that are versatile for many different applications. Recycled rubber flooring is just one of the many uses of recycled tires. With Eco Green Equipment, you have the ability to create recycled rubber material that is becoming more in-demand each day in both commercial and industrial applications.