Most people assume tires get recycled like aluminum cans, plastic bottles, or cardboard boxes. Maybe they get swapped out at the shop, hauled away, and turned into something new somewhere down the line, but don’t think much further than that.
The reality is not that simple. Billions of tires end up in landfills every year, and much of what the industry calls recycling is really just repurposing – a temporary fix that delays the problem rather than solving it.
In order to truly address tire waste, the industry must shift away from only repurposing and into recycling. But for tires, that process will take a fundamental change in how we value waste.
What Most People Think “Tire Recycling” Means
Repurposed tires do have the ability to become useful, everyday products. They can be ground down and turned into athletic turf, mixed into asphalt for roads, and melted into fill material. For a long time that was the best possible solution for used tires. But in all these cases, tires are being reused, not actually broken down. They will likely end up in a landfill down the road.
Part of the issue is the synonymous use of the word “recycling.” It’s used to describe everything from repurposing and reusing to the process of actually breaking down material. Getting clear on that distinction is the first step toward understanding what’s really at stake.
What True Tire Recycling Really Looks Like
Part of why repurposing has led the way for so long is because tires are notoriously designed to be extremely long-lasting and durable – and that also makes them very resistant to natural decomposition. Pyrolysis is one of the few processes that can actually break them down.
Pyrolysis is a thermochemical process that heats tires to extreme temperatures (usually around 400℉ to 600℉) with little to no oxygen. Because the tires are starved of oxygen, the material doesn’t combust but breaks down at the molecular level. What’s left are four recoverable byproducts: recycled carbon black (rCB), syngas, steel wire and tire pyrolysis oil (TPO).
- Recycled Carbon Black (rCB): Makes up roughly 25–30% of a tire by weight and is used across rubber goods, plastics, inks, and coatings. But its most important destination is new tire production. Most recyclers struggle to eliminate ash from the pyrolysis process. Typical recycled carbon black (rCB) contains around 20% ash. The Carbon Black Extractor (CBX) is already producing rCB with 13% ash content and has a roadmap to reach 7%, a level that would make rCB a viable substitute for petroleum-derived virgin carbon black.
- Syngas: A mix of hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide that can power heat and electricity generation. The CBX loops it back into its own generator, partially fueling the process itself.
- Steel Wire: High-quality and clean coming out of pyrolysis, it goes straight into scrap metal markets and can be melted down for construction, manufacturing, or new steel products.
Through pyrolysis, these materials re-enter the supply chain as raw materials rather than secondary products, improving the overall value of the waste and turning it into something that generates revenue.
Flipping the Value on Its Head
The CBX turns tire waste from a cost center into a profit center. Rather than a manufacturer paying someone else to make tire waste go away, they can use the CBX to extract raw materials and turn that waste into feedstock, moving tire waste up the value chain, recovering materials that are worth more than the disposal problem they started at.
It also makes true recycling more accessible to operators anywhere. The infrastructure of tire recycling has long been a main pain point in scaling this kind of technology. Historically, tires had to be brought to a facility, costing money and logistics in the process. But the CBX goes to where the waste is, changing the economics of tire recycling completely.
Why This Matters
Tire manufacturers are under growing pressure to reduce their reliance on petroleum-based materials, and rCB is one of the most direct ways to do that. But most rCB on the market isn’t pure enough to meet their standards. Companies that can supply high-quality rCB will have a real advantage as demand grows and regulations tighten.
And with increasing scrutiny on companies that shred tires and dump them anyway, true recycling isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s becoming the best long-term business decision.
For decades, the barrier to true tire recycling was economics. There was no cost-effective way to break tires down at scale, recover what’s inside, and turn a profit doing it. Gilead Dynamics has changed that.
We created the CBX to be the first mobile, compact technology that can go directly to where tire waste lives, process half a million tires a year, and generate $2.5 million in byproduct revenue, all while avoiding many of the infrastructure and permitting requirements associated with permanent facilities.
The CBX is proof that the tools and economics can work in tire recycling. The only thing left is for companies to start doing it right by investing in technology that actually breaks tires down, recovers what’s inside, and turns a profit doing it.