New Video and Users Guide Help Recyclers Produce High Quality Recycled Rubber

Recycled rubber has become a part of the circular economy where rubber is recycled and used in new products, technologies and uses. Today, more than ever, tire and rubber recyclers need to qualify and verify their material meets both industry standards and customer specification.

A new video and users guide on how to test rubber to determine and/or verify the particle size used by tire-derived-product manufacturers and tire-derived material feedstock suppliers, show why it is important to adhere to standards and best management practices.

These new resources, the Test and Classify Recycled Rubber Video Tutorial and the Test and Classify the Source of Recycled Rubber User Guide, were produced and funded under the purview of the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) Feedstock Conversion Technical Assistance and Material Testing Services (FCS) Contract.  Since 2015, CalRecycle has awarded two FCS contracts, both to Sacramento, CA-based DK Enterprises—FCS1 in June 2015 and FCS2 in April 2019.

These unique, and perhaps only state contracts of their kind, support the CalRecycle Tire Incentive Program (TIP) which is designed to expand the demand for different and higher value-added tire-derived products (TDP) by providing an incentive to use, at least five percent, recycled tire rubber (crumb rubber) to partially replace virgin rubber, EPDM, plastic, or other raw material (also referred to as feedstock conversion”) and to increase sales of products that already contain crumb rubber. Funding is provided to the technical and testing service providers, in part or in full, that assist the qualified California manufacturers in the development of new or existing feedstock conversion products.

The FCS contract includes identifying and qualifying California rubber product manufacturers, rubber compounders, calendered rubber manufacturers, devulcanized crumb rubber manufacturers, and plastic product manufacturers using TIP eligibility criteria and, if necessary, potential volume and value-added use of crumb rubber.  As the contractor, DK Enterprises coordinates the appropriate engineering, manufacturing, testing, and certification resources to formulate the optimum mix/size (mesh) of crumb rubber and provide the technical assistance to ensure the timely production and sale of the TDPs. To identify and qualify material, DK Enterprises performs on-site sampling (extraction and collection) and appropriate testing of crumb rubber including providing certification of the sieve analysis that is consistent with ASTM International D5644 Standard Test Method for Rubber Compounding and D5603 Standard for Classification for Rubber Compounding Materials. Since the FCS2 contract began, ASTM D8268-19 was created that includes practices that were previously found in D5603.

The new Test and Classify Recycled Rubber Video explains the importance of testing material for product development, technologies and uses, DK Enterprises President Denise Kennedy said.

The video is a step-by-step demonstration on how to test rubber using the vibratory shaker system. The video tutorial also discusses the importance of ASTM standards in classifying the source of the rubber (e.g., car, truck, bus, off-road tires) and non-rubber; determining the particle size of rubber; and test method to ensure quality control in the design and development of recycled rubber products, new technologies and uses.

In conjunction with the video, DK Enterprises put together the Test and Classify the Source of Recycled Rubber Users Guide, which supplements the the information provided in the video and includes a Glossary of Terms and Acronyms, Guidelines and Test Methods and showcases a variety of tire-derived products and uses.

© Scrap Tire News, August 2021