Formal Partnership Between Bolder Industries and Liberty Tire to Promote Circularity in U.S. Market
Bolder Industries and Liberty Tire Partnership Signals a Maturing Circular Tire Market
Two of the most visible names in North American end-of-life tire management, Bolder Industries and Liberty Tire, have formalized the partnership they first announced in November 2021. The agreement locks in a long-term feedstock relationship between the largest tire collector and recycler in the United States and a producer of recovered carbon black and recovered oil. For anyone tracking the circular tire economy, the signal matters more than the signatures.
What the Agreement Actually Covers
The formal North American agreement secures scrap tire supply for Bolder’s Terre Haute, Indiana facility, the former Pyrolyx plant the company acquired in late 2021. Public statements from both companies describe the following scope:
- More than 3 million end-of-life tires per year processed at Terre Haute once fully commissioned.
- Potential growth to roughly 6 million tires annually within two to four years, demand permitting.
- A preliminary understanding to extend the partnership into Illinois, South Carolina, Maryland and Tennessee.
- Outputs centred on BolderBlack recovered carbon black and BolderOil recovered petrochemicals.
No financial terms were disclosed, and neither party has published volumes beyond those headline figures.
Why Feedstock Security Is the Real Story
Pyrolysis projects rarely fail on chemistry. They fail on two things: a reliable, contracted tire supply and an offtake market willing to pay for upgraded product. By tying a collector with nationwide logistics to a conversion operator, this deal addresses the first problem directly. It also confirms what tire majors have been saying publicly, that recovered carbon black is moving from pilot curiosity to specified raw material in rubber and plastics compounds.
What It Means for Project Developers
Competition for scrap tire feedstock in the United States will tighten as more conversion capacity is built. Developers who assume tires will remain a free or negative-cost input are planning against the trend. The projects that hold margin will be those that control feedstock contracts and, critically, upgrade their char into consistent, ASTM-comparable rCB rather than selling raw carbon char into a thin market.
Klean Industries has built its model around exactly that distinction: integrated tire recycling plants paired with carbon black upgrading, so the solid stream leaves site as a specified product with a buyer, not a byproduct looking for one.
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Turn Scrap Tires into Specified rCB
As Bolder and Liberty lock in 3 million tires a year, feedstock is consolidating — the margin now belongs to operators who upgrade char into consistent, ASTM-comparable rCB with a buyer attached, not a byproduct looking for one.
Klean pairs integrated tire-recycling plants with carbon-black upgrading, delivered turn-key through KBR with performance guarantees and a commercial-scale rCB reference plant already in operation.
Planning a tire recycling or rCB project?
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