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Why Use Recycled Rubber Products?
Conserve vital energy and material resources
The energy required to produce a pound of virgin rubber is 15,700 BTUs, while that expended in the production of an equivalent amount of recycled rubber is only 4,600 BTUs... a savings of over 70%.
Aid the nation's economy and environment.
The disposal of the estimated 200 million tires that are discarded annually is a costly problem of major proportion.
Reduce dependence on oversea sources of supply.
Natural rubber, the product of latex gathered from tropical trees and plants, accounts for a large quantity of the rubber raw materials consumed annually in the U.S. But the largest quantity is synthetic rubber, derived from petroleum (it takes half a barrel of crude oil to produce the rubber in one large truck tire). While recycled rubber makes up less than 4% of the total, many billions of pounds of rubber, comprised mostly of automobile and truck tires, are discarded each year.
The raw material sources of natural rubber, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Brazil, could, in years ahead, become uncertain or even inaccessible to U.S. industry due to political and/or economic reasons. And with the oil-producing countries exerting certain controls, the future price and availability of synthetic rubber, which is derived from petroleum, are open to serious question.
Provide reliable, top-quality products.
Recycled rubber is found in a countless variety of industrial and consumer products, tires, wheel chocks, mats, dock bumpers, die-cut parts, fittings, and other obscure but essential components that are not always readily visible to the naked eye.
In an era where energy conservation, materials availability, and solid waste management are of such pressing concern to us all, it is imperative that we have a better understanding of recycling and the value of recycled products, such as those made from recycled tire rubber.
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