Water through rubber

Every year, the

produces millions of scrap tyres that clog landfills and become breeding areas for pests. Finding adequate uses for cast-off tyres is a continuing challenge and illegal dumping has become a serious problem throughout the

.

Dr. Yuefeng Xie, associate professor of environmental engineering at Penn State Harrisburg, has developed a method that uses crumb rubber to filter wastewater, which can help ease the tyre problem and clean up the environment at the same time.

‘My research has found that crumb rubber, derived from waste tyres, can be used as a filter media,’ Xie explained. ‘The crumb rubber could be used for treating wastewater, ship ballast water, and storm water.’

Crumb rubber is produced by chopping up and grinding up waste tyres to a desired size, cleaning the rubber and removing any metal particles. It is currently being used in highway pavement, athletic track surfaces, playgrounds, landfill liners, compost bulking agents, various manufactured products, energy recovery and even as artificial reefs for aquatic life.