Sustainable Development Goals
Current Project Status:
Development Started 2024 | Feasibility Study
Organizations Involved:
Klean Industries, Sika Corporation, Liberty Tire Recycling, Lafarge/Holcim, Cemex
Services:
Feasibility Study, Due Diligence, Carbon Management
Klean Industries transforms scrap tires into high-performance steel fibers that enhance concrete reinforcement, delivering superior strength, crack resistance, and sustainability for modern infrastructure.
Introduction
In the United States, millions of tons of end-of-life tires (ELTs) are discarded yearly, presenting a significant environmental and logistical challenge. Among the valuable materials embedded within these tires is high-tensile steel wire, traditionally overlooked or downcycled during recycling. However, as the construction industry seeks more sustainable and performance-driven materials, an opportunity is emerging to repurpose this recovered steel for concrete reinforcement applications.
Leveraging steel extracted from ELTs provides a circular economy solution that not only diverts waste from landfills but also reduces the reliance on virgin steel reinforcement in concrete infrastructure. As demonstrated in successful European initiatives and supported by growing market interest, tire-derived steel fibers (TDSFs) offer mechanical properties comparable to conventional reinforcement products while delivering significant environmental and economic benefits. This case study explores the potential to scale this innovation across the U.S. market, aligning sustainable tire recycling with the growing demand for greener, stronger concrete solutions.
The Challenge
The United States generates over 300 million end-of-life tires (ELTs) each year, translating into an estimated 4.4 million tons of waste. Roughly 15–20% of each tire is composed of high-tensile steel. That equates to over 600,000 tons of recoverable steel annually, either downcycled into low-grade scrap metal for rebar manufacturing or lost altogether due to inefficient processing methods.
Simultaneously, the U.S. construction sector is pressured to address escalating costs, labor shortages, and growing environmental impact. Concrete, the world’s most used construction material, accounts for around 8% of global CO₂ emissions, primarily due to cement production and energy-intensive virgin materials like steel reinforcement.
While recycled tire fiber has already demonstrated performance and environmental benefits in concrete—as seen in recent Klean Industries pilot projects—steel recovered from tires remains an underexploited resource. In similar European case studies, tire-derived steel fibers (TDSFs) have proven effective at enhancing concrete ductility, crack resistance, and impact strength while reducing material costs and embodied carbon.
Despite this potential, adoption in the U.S. faces several key hurdles: inconsistent recovery practices, lack of standardized specifications for recycled steel fiber in structural applications, and limited awareness among contractors and concrete producers. Without intervention, millions of dollars worth of high-grade steel will continue to be discarded or underutilized — and a massive opportunity for circular innovation in concrete construction will be left on the table.
The Solution
To unlock the value of tire-derived steel in the U.S. construction sector, Klean Industries is advancing a closed-loop solution that recovers, processes, and repurposes high-tensile steel fibers from end-of-life tires for use in concrete reinforcement applications. Building on proven technologies and successful international models, this approach delivers a high-performance, sustainable alternative to virgin steel products.
Through precision-engineered pyrolysis and mechanical separation systems, Klean Industries’ facilities extract clean, uniform steel wire with minimal contamination—ideal for conversion into concrete-reinforcing fibers. When properly treated and processed, these fibers offer mechanical performance on par with traditional steel fibers, enhancing tensile strength, crack resistance, and post-crack load-bearing capacity in concrete.
Collaborations with innovation leaders like XFibres and established construction material providers like Sika USA enable the refinement of these recycled fibers to meet industry performance standards. In concrete applications such as industrial flooring, precast panels, tunnel linings, and shotcrete, TDSFs have already demonstrated improved toughness, reduced shrinkage cracking, and lower maintenance costs.
Beyond material performance, the environmental impact is significant. By replacing virgin steel with recovered tire-derived fibers, greenhouse gas emissions associated with steel production can be cut dramatically — with early estimates suggesting up to 60% reduction in embedded carbon compared to conventional steel reinforcement. This supports green building certifications like LEED and aligns with broader government and industry mandates for sustainable infrastructure development.
Klean’s integrated tire recycling and materials recovery approach ensures that TDSF production can be scaled locally, reducing transportation costs and creating regional supply chains for sustainable construction materials — a critical advantage as states and municipalities pursue decarbonization goals and circular economy strategies.
The Outcome
Integrating tire-derived steel fibers into concrete applications represents a transformative opportunity for the recycling and construction industries in the United States. By redirecting hundreds of thousands of tons of high-tensile steel from waste streams into high-performance building materials, Klean Industries is driving measurable environmental, economic, and structural benefits.
Drawing from proven European case studies and internal research, pilot testing and field applications show that concrete reinforced with tire-derived steel fibers achieves comparable or superior performance to conventional steel fibers. These benefits include:
Regarding environmental impact, utilizing just 10% of the U.S. annually recovered tire steel in concrete reinforcement could prevent an estimated 300,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year, equivalent to removing 65,000 cars off the road while reducing dependence on virgin materials and supporting landfill diversion targets. This shift also fosters the development of domestic supply chains, regional job creation, and the broader adoption of circular economy principles across infrastructure development.
Klean Industries’ model — combining advanced pyrolysis systems, steel fiber recovery, and partnerships with forward-thinking construction firms — is setting the stage for scalable deployment across North America. As infrastructure investment accelerates through federal funding and green building initiatives, the opportunity to embed sustainable, high-performance materials like TDSFs into the concrete value chain has never been more significant.
This case study serves as proof of concept for the U.S. market, signaling a new era of circularity in which waste becomes a foundation, quite literally, for stronger, more sustainable infrastructure.
Klean Industries is pioneering a new era of circular construction by recovering and refining steel fibers from end-of-life tires. This process delivers a sustainable, high-performance additive for reinforced concrete applications.
Why Tire-Derived Steel Fibers?
✅ Enhances tensile strength and crack resistance
✅ Reduces reliance on virgin steel additives
✅ Supports circular economy and GHG reductions
✅ Ideal for pavements, precast, shotcrete & industrial flooring
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