Investors pump millions into Belgian tyre hub

Belgian start-up Risorce has raised EUR 12.5 million towards a new tyre recycling plant.

The site will operate six lines to treat 18 000 tonnes of tyre granules per annum, the equivalent to 2.4 million tyres per year. Risorce has selected Baelen, in the province of Liège, as the location.

Construction will start in early 2024, with the facility opening its doors at the start of 2025. The site will create 20 new jobs.

Risorce believes its new hub will enable it to recycle half of Belgium’s end-of-life cars locally. The recycler relies on a pyrolysis process that mainly produces oil as a by-product from used tyres. This will be sold as a raw material to European petrochemical companies.

The recycling plant will also extract carbon black and gas, which will also be used in industrial processes or for the plant’s operating needs. 

‘We offer a locally-based solution that is both technologically and environmentally robust, a real innovation,’ comments Risorce ceo Bernard van den Wouwer.

Amongst the investors providing the funding are GREEN.er (Recytyre), Noshaq and Wallonie Entreprendre.

‘The traditional rubber recycling industry is at a turning point,’ says Recytyre ceo Chris Lorquet. ‘It needs to reinvent itself. The future of material circularity lies in the chemical processing of tyre components.’