Private Equity Urged to Back Higher-Value Tire Recycling
Tire Recycling Investment
Private equity is pouring into tire recycling at scale, yet most of that capital still goes to collecting and processing scrap tires rather than building the higher-value rubber products that command better margins.
Where the Capital Flows
The observation comes from Paul Downey, founder and CEO of Pliteq, a company headquartered in Canada with recycled tire product operations in roughly 50 countries, who has worked in end-of-life tire recycling since 1990. He argues that much of the tire recycling investment flooding the sector remains concentrated in collection and processing, leaving significant value untapped further downstream, where product development earns the highest margins.
The Value Gap
The economics support the point: crumb rubber sells for roughly ten to twenty cents per pound, while classified, specification-grade material can command a dollar or two. That gap is the entire business case for separating tire categories at intake and engineering material for defined performance, rather than treating every tire as interchangeable volume that carries no price premium.
Preserving Material Identity
In most commodity markets, value rises as materials become more defined and predictable, but tire recycling has historically focused on recovering volume rather than preserving material identity. Once rubber types have been ground together they cannot be separated again, so processors seeking higher margins are urged to separate tire categories at intake before they move further down the value chain.
Higher-Value Products
Pliteq itself recycles end-of-life tire rubber into sound and vibration control, flooring and building products, diverting millions of tires from landfill each year. Its facilities, operating on a near-zero-waste basis, recycle the equivalent of roughly five million tires annually and have supported more than 15,000 commercial projects worldwide, with products containing up to 94% recycled rubber content. Downey’s broader case is that investors who back product development, not just throughput, will unlock far greater returns across the sector.
Learn More:
Turn Tires Into Marketable Products
The strongest tire recycling businesses move beyond collection to sell high-value recovered materials and finished products.
Klean Industries helps operators design plants that convert end-of-life tires into profitable outputs.
Ready to build a higher-value tire recycling operation?
You can return to the main Market News page, or press the Back button on your browser.
