Old tires are improving the urban landscape’s asphalt, making it safer for pedestrians. It also improves the performance of bicycles and automobiles. The tire recycling process has transformed these environmental hazards into beneficial products. Here’s how they do it:
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Creating Ground Tire Rubber From End-of-Life Tires
Tire shops, trucking firms, and individual drivers all deliver their used tires to tire recycling facilities. Enormous machinery crushes these tires into rough fragments of rubber. They then separated the tire rubber from the wire and fiber elements using large magnets and screening machinery. Next, the filtered tire rubber is crushed into ground tire rubber (GTR), also known as crumb rubber or rubber powder.
Incorporating Ground Tire Rubber into Asphalt
The asphalt sector has discovered many ways to use recycled tire rubber. Adding GTR to the crude oil is one of the most common ways to make a more potent asphalt binder. Rubberized asphalt is a modified building material that contains around 15% ground tire rubber.
Asphalt is prone to cracking in an extremely hot environment. Adding rubber powder improves longevity and asphalt may contract and expand without cracking. Developers are still experimenting with adding additional recycled tire rubber to asphalt to make even more elastic surfaces.
Cushioning Falls
Most deadly falls happen on road surfaces. These falls, which are more common in persons over 60, may result from someone just losing their balance while crossing the street. When recycled tire rubber is added to hard asphalt, the material becomes more elastic. This elasticity has the potential to prevent countless injuries and save countless lives on the pedestrian pavement.
Increasing Stopping Ability
Hydroplaning happens when roads are wet and a car glide on the water instead of maintaining grip with the pavement. Asphalt that contains more recycled tire material produces more friction. The rubber-modified roadways’ surface texture significantly lowers the likelihood of hydroplaning. This technique is already being used by the SaferUp project, which updates the street network with asphalt with a higher rubber component as needed.
Reducing Production Emissions
Employing recycled tires in asphalt reduces greenhouse gas emissions needed to generate the road material. Asphalt makers use less energy to produce asphalt when they use more recycled tires. Less crude oil is required to manufacture asphalt because the ground tire rubber is mostly used to bind the granite and sand. Relying as much as possible on recycled materials is helpful since crude oil spills destroy ecosystems and contaminate waterways.
Longer Asphalt Lifespan
The temperature, traffic volume, and asphalt’s composition all affect how long asphalt lasts. When it is exposed to high temperatures, sidewalks, and roads, asphalt stretches and contracts leading to cracks. Water erosion and heavy traffic make the issue worse. Roadway hazards increase because of cracks and potholes, making driving bumpier. Bicyclists and pedestrians can trip over damaged sidewalks. The rubber increases the suppleness of asphalt, allowing it to withstand temperature changes and heavy traffic without cracking. Rubberized asphalt also absorbs shocks from large cars rather than rupturing, extending the time between repairs or replacement of roadways.
With the help of modern tire recycling technologies, unsafe cityscapes are significantly improved. Using ground tire rubber in asphalt improves a car’s braking performance while extending the life of the pavement and reducing air pollution and fall injuries. With the help of this technology, vehicles, bikers, and pedestrians are less at risk on city streets.
source: https://ecogreenequipment.com/how-recycled-tires-are-making-cities-safer/
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