Brenntag, a global chemical and ingredients distributor, and RubberJet Valley, an Italian rubber recycling group, entered a distribution agreement for the technical development and commercialization of rubber granules and powder produced from sustainably recycling large end-of-life tires.

RubberJet Valley uses a proprietary, environmentally friendly technology to produce high-quality polymer granules and powder out of large end-of-life and off-the-road tires from trucks, tractors, and mining vehicles. These large tires are broken down into individual parts by a process using high-pressure waterjets, giving the recycled materials an especially large and active surface structure. This allows the recycled polymers to be vulcanized again, creating sustainable and high-quality powder based on carbon black and high content of natural rubber. This can replace natural or synthetic rubber in new compounds.

“With the overall continuous growth in demand for rubber, the expansion of natural rubber processing sector is becoming a serious environmental issue. Medium and large tires are currently made mostly of natural rubber deriving from rubber trees. This precious raw material has been included in the list of ‘Critical Raw Materials’ by the European Union. Today, the EU is 100% dependent on natural rubber coming mainly from Asia. For a more sustainable and circular process, changing this is key. By boosting the commercialization of products made of recycled rubber, Brenntag and RubberJet are helping to reduce the deforestation rate allowing the rubber companies to have a real alternative and sustainable product to the original virgin materials,” said Andreas Kicherer, vice president, Sustainability, Brenntag.

“With our innovative technology, we’re opening a totally new opportunity for the rubber industry, allowing the companies that belong to this field to use recycled but still very high-quality polymers to replace natural or synthetic rubber within the new tire compounds and more generally in all rubber applications using synthetic or natural rubber. Clients, who would like to achieve environmental benefits as well as savings from using 100% green material, will profit from the cooperation with Brenntag. We look forward to reaching out to more clients around the world who are interested in becoming our green partners," said Tommaso Verri, CEO, RubberJet Valley.

To learn more, visit www.brenntag.com and www.rubberjetvalley.com.