52 May 2016
As elsewhere in the world, tyre recyclers and innovators in the USA
are working together to make new recycled rubber products that, for
example, power lighting at train stations, protect buildings during
earthquakes and even create fashionable footwear, it was highlighted
by experts addressing the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’
Spotlight on Tyres session.
Tyre recyclers can tap into new markets by thinking outside the box and creating part-
nerships with vendors or employees who have
fresh ideas, according to Mary Sikora, publisher of
Scrap Tyre News, and Steve Bigelow, vice president
of sales and marketing at Pittsburgh-based Liberty
Tyre Recycling. In the past few years, such partner-
ships have resulted in real-life projects that solve
everyday problems, it was observed at ISRI’s latest
Spotlight on Tyres session in Las Vegas.
The key to finding new markets for tyres is to
think creatively and bounce ideas off people
who can help make a far-fetched dream a reality,
Sikora told delegates. These collaborators ‘may
even be your own employees, vendors, people
you deal with in the business or have seen some-
thing your product might be good for’. Recyclers
also should spend a day in the life of their cus-
tomers to understand their needs and challeng-
es, then tailor recycling solutions to those needs,
she said. For example, London-based Pavegen
has created a pavement panel made with 50%
recycled rubber for the Saint-Omer train sta-
tion in France that absorbs kinetic energy when
commuters walk over it, then uses the energy to
power lights and phone chargers near the train
station’s benches. ‘They let the task that people
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A WASTE-LESS SOCIETY
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TSRE_Recycling International_MSW_185x128mm+3_GB_160414.indd 1 14.04.2016 11:41:24
S P O T L I G H T O N T Y R E S A N D R U B B E R By Megan Quinn
Transforming ‘wild
into real products
ideas’
