Can trousers be made from recycled tyres?

Tyres are difficult to recycle, given that they consist of mixed materials such as plastics, rubber, and metal. This makes them part of the global waste problem, as they represent 2-3% of all waste material collected.

BASF and VAUDE, an outdoor apparel company, have found a way to give new value to this waste. Chemically recycled scrap tyres are used as a raw material to manufacture high-quality outdoor trousers.

How does that work exactly? When old tyres are recycled, one pathway is to convert them into pyrolysis oil. This oil is then used by BASF replacing fossil feedstock to produce polyamide for use in textiles. These textiles fulfill high quality and performance requirements.

BASF feeds pyrolysis oil from old tires into its production Verbund in Ludwigshafen, partially replacing fossil resources. The recycled material is assigned to certain products using a certified mass balance approach.

The result is a lower carbon footprint in the production process, preservation of valuable resources by replacing fossil fuels, and reduction of tire waste.

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