Waste Tyre Recycling

South Korea has launched a KRW 73 billion national R&D programme to turn waste clothing and waste tyres into higher-value recycled materials, with most of the funding aimed at recovering raw materials from end-of-life tyres.

The Investment

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE) and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute are running the programme from 2026 through 2030. Of the KRW 73 billion total, KRW 48 billion is directed toward technologies that recover high-quality raw materials from waste tyres and incorporate them back into new tyre production.

Moving Beyond Thermal Feed

The programme targets a real gap. More than 60% of South Korea’s waste tyres are currently used as thermal feed — effectively burned for energy — rather than being converted into higher-value material. The new R&D push is aimed squarely at shifting that balance toward material recovery.

Why It Matters

The investment signals where the sector is heading: away from low-value energy recovery and toward circular material recovery. Turning end-of-life tyres back into raw materials for new tyres — through processes like tire pyrolysis and recovered carbon black production — preserves the embedded value of the material and supports the circular-economy targets that are shaping waste policy worldwide. For operators and developers, national programmes like this one de-risk the feasibility work that precedes a new plant.

Learn More:

• Tire pyrolysis and the oil it unlocks
• Klean’s recovered carbon black production
• What recovered carbon black is and how it is made
• Feasibility studies for new pyrolysis plants

Turn Waste Tyres into Higher-Value Materials

National programmes like South Korea’s are accelerating the shift from burning end-of-life tyres to recovering their raw materials — the same waste-to-value direction Klean Industries has championed for decades. The technology and the feedstock are both ready.

Planning a waste tyre recycling or material-recovery project?

Contact Klean Industries about waste tyre recycling and material recovery » GO.