UNTAPPED POSSIBILITIES OF REUSE OF SOLID RUBBER WASTE IN CONSTRUCTION

AR. KAVITA MURUGKAR

DR.B.N.COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE UNIVERSITY OF PUNE PUNE, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA murugkar@gmail.com
Abstract - With the growth and development on all fronts in our country, economic and infrastructural, there is an increasing need for new facilities, buildings ,roads etc. This has in turn resulted in a huge demand for the materials of construction and the raw materials from which these are obtained or made, thus putting an increasing pressure on the natural environment around us . Also the disposal of residual waste ,domestic as well as industrial, has become a major concern and a challenge for the authorities and care-takers. Ironically, In spite of each one of us being the source and victim of this problem , very few amongst us have ventured their time , knowledge and expertise into addressing this issue and arriving at universal solutions . Some of these initiators have laid an example that large quantities and varieties of wastes and industrial by-products have a potential for use in the construction industry. The utilisation of these waste materials may therefore reduce the need to quarry natural materials and minimize the hazards caused by the tipping or other method of disposal of the waste material. One such material which has tremendous potential for recycle and reuse in construction related activities is solid rubber. Appropriate recycling of rubber waste can help in resolving a challenging environmental, economical, and social problem. This paper is an attempt at documenting the prevalent applications of rubber waste, and also bringing forth various innovative and path breaking products and solutions very popularly used in the west but comparatively untapped in the Indian scenario.

II. SOURCES OF RUBBER WASTE Rubber waste has basically 3 main sources in India namely: Used Automobile Tyres , rubber scrap and foot wear. III. RUBBER WASTE DISPOSAL SCENARIO In the past few decades India has witnessed an increasing number of initiatives and programs by the government as well as individuals , community organisations, NGOs and private companies towards improving the existing waste management systems in the country. But the fact is these efforts are not enough and much more needs to be done.
TABLE II
WASTE DISPOSAL IN INDIAN CITIES (%)

I. INTRODUCTION According to the consensus of 2001, 270 million out of the 1027 million people in India live in urban areas. It is estimated that by the year 2011 the total of the urban population shall reach the figure of 400 million. The total waste generated by the people in urban areas is around 40 million tones per year. The composition of this waste varies from biodegradable organic vegetable matter to inorganic materials like metal and rubber. No official or enforced system of segregation at source has been put in place, either by recycling or reuse, but some persons have found great use for the waste and thus nowadays whatever can be used or recycled is taken out of the garbage before throwing it away.
TABLE I
NATURE OF WASTE IN INDIA

METHOD Land dumping Composting Others * EPTRI 1995

23 CITIES* 89.9 8.6 1.6

Population (Million ) 0.1 to 0.5 0.5 to 1.0 1.0 to 2.0 2.0 to 5.0 5.0 +

No. of Paper Rubber, Glass Metal Compostable Inert cities % Leather % % matter % material surveyed % (reuse ) % 12 15 9 3 4 2.91 2.95 4.71 3.18 6.43 0.78 0.73 0.71 0.48 0.28 0.56 0.56 0.46 0.48 0.94 0.33 0.32 0.49 0.59 0.80 44.57 40.04 38.95 56.67 30.84 43.5 48.3 44.7 40.0 53.9

Rubber is one of the most difficult materials to recycle and the safe disposal and reuse of industrial and consumer rubber waste continues to pose a serious threat to environmental safety and health. Dumping of heaps of mountains of used tires confirm the belief that chemically cross linked rubber is one of the most difficult materials to recycle. That coupled with a long history of failed attempts to create quality products from rubber has resulted in such a resistance to new ideas concerning rubber recycling.

Scrap Tyre disposal methods used currently can be listed as below ranked on their environmental preference : 1 Use the product for its originally intended purpose as long as possible. 2 Use MATERIAL for its originally intended purpose. Grind scrap tyres into crumb rubber, separate steel and fiber. Sell rubber as raw material. 3 Use whole scrap tires for energy recovery. Burn whole scrap tires as fuel supplement in cement kilns. 4 Use mechanically processed tires for energy recovery. Eg.Tyre chips added to coal as fuel supplement in power plants, paper mills, cement kilns, etc. 5 Alter the chemical structure of scrap tires and use the products for energy recovery. 6 Monofilling - Storage for possible recovery at a later time. 7 Landfilling - Disposal without any current or future use. Rubber is one of the dry waste materials which should not be used for landfilling. The tyres destabilise the landfill making it costly and difficult to rehabilitate. Apart from above mentioned fire hazards, long term leaching effects of the organic component from buried tyres also is a threat to the environment.

IV. IMPORT OF RUBBER WASTE IN INDIA Apart from the domestically generated waste , there are severe problems being faced by developing countries like ours regarding waste being dumped by developed nations. Due to the short sighted understanding of the authorities regarding its long term ecological impacts, the waste from land starved developed nations is imported as a trade of land for returns in kind. These are largely in terms of recyclable/reusable materials, but in some cases they may also contain toxic and hazardous waste. Average import of rubber waste in India from other countries is around 11 tons which is 5 million rupees in value. V. HAZARDS FROM RUBBER WASTE The most obvious hazard associated with the uncontrolled disposal and accumulation of large amounts of tires outdoors is the potential for large fires that are extremely detrimental to the environment. Once a large pile catches fire, it is very hard, if not impossible, to extinguish. In some instances, large tire piles have been burning for several months with the fumes being visible for many miles. Due to the intense heat and smoke generation, fire fighters have a hard time extinguishing these fires with conventional means. The second problem often caused by illegal tire piles involves disease carrying mosquitoes, which tend to breed in great numbers the protected water puddles of the tires. Especially in areas with warmer climates mosquito-borne diseases like encephalitis and dengue fever have been reported around large tire piles. In response to the environmental problems and health hazards caused the by countless illegal scrap tire piles around the globe, most industrialized countries have instigated legal guidelines addressing this issue. Regulations vary from country to country, but the main purpose of these regulations is to provide for an environmentally safe disposal, limit the amount of tires being stored at any given location, and to encourage the use of tyre derived recycling products. VI. RUBBER WASTE COLLECTION AND RECYCLING PROCESS The disposed off rubber is picked up from various sources by the consumer / rag picker / whole seller from where it is further used for the following : REUSE : Rubber in form of tyres is sold in the automobile market where it is reused by alteration. BURNT : Rubber becomes a common ingredient in burning of kiln but when burnt it produces a dense noxious smoke that is difficult to extinguish.

subsidies are sometimes instrumental for the implementation of a recycling project, economically sound and market driven solutions are the need of the hour and to ensure economic success and increasing market demand for such recyled products following aspects need to be worked on Sound marketing for the recycled product Judicious selection of the appropriate recycling technology Innovative product development A local and national government that is supportive of recycling. VIII. CIVIL ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS OF RUBBER WASTE

Because of the scale and required material properties, civil engineering applications have been considered as suitable for the use of crumb rubber. The strength and physical properties of crumb rubber make this material attractive for these types of applications. Hence Civil engineering applications of scrap tyres are expected to become more widespread as more and more applications can be proven to be technically and economically viable. Tyre derived products, mostly 1 tyre chips are sometimes used to replace conventional construction material, e.g., road fill, gravel, crushed rock or sand. The benefits of using tyre chips instead of conventional construction materials are amongst others: reduced density, improved drainage properties and better thermal insulation. Among the wide variety of commercial applications, the following prevalent applications have exhibited a growing market potential: Flooring for pavements, athletic fields & industrial facilities walls Acoustic barriers Rail crossings, ties and buffers Lightweight fill for embankments and retaining

MANUFACTURING UNIT : After crumbing the rubber is used for number of applications which have been discussed in the following sections. It takes 3 4 times as much energy to produce tire rubber, compared to the energy recovered by thermal recycling. Consequently, the use of recycled tire rubber for its originally intended (or related) purpose makes by far more sense than incineration, both environmentally and economically.
TABLE III
ECONOMIC EQUATION DURING WASTE COLLECTION CYCLE RS. / KG/ PIECE .

Leachate drainage material at municipal solid waste landfills Insulating layer beneath roads and behind retaining walls The scrap tyre / rubber chips are basically called Crumb Rubber . The following section shall put more light on this . IX. RUBBER CRUMBS Crumb rubber, also referred to as ground rubber, is a wire-free fine rubber particle made by size reduction from scrap tires. Various size reduction techniques can be used to achieve a wide range of particle sizes down to 600 microns or less. Chipped tires also result in wire-free shredded tire particles of relatively large particle size compared to crumb rubber. The crumb rubber market is projected to increase 10 - 15% annually; however, there is a need for the creation of new uses for crumb rubber.
TABLE IV
TYPICAL PRODUCT YEILD FROM SCRAP TYRES

Rubber

Houselevel Wastepicker Vendor reused

Vendor profit

Local seller

Wholeseller

Tyres, Thrown/ slippers reused etc

3.00 per 1.00 piece

Not 10.0 to 20.0 observed per piece ( as per size and dia. )

VII. MARKET OVERVIEW FOR PRODUCTS FROM RECYCLED

RUBBER

The rubber reclaiming industry is as old as the industrial use of rubber itself. The concept of Rubber recycling not only has a long past, but also a bright future. But currently very little is known about the existing and available recycled rubber products . Application of the same is seen very rarely and hence demand for such products is also less .While grants and

Product yeild from Crumb rubber

Truck tyres 70 %

Car Tyres 70 %

Steel Fiber and scrap

27 % 3%

15 % 15 %

A. Manufacture of Crumb Rubber Crumb rubber is made by a combination or application of several size reduction technologies. These technologies may be divided into two major processing categories, mechanical grinding and cryogenic reduction. Ten to twelve pounds of crumb rubber can be derived from one scrap passenger tire. Mesh, or sieve size, is commonly used to describe or measure the size of crumb rubber. Crumb rubber is sized by the mesh screen or sieve through which it passes in the production process. A 30 mesh means there are 30 holes, or openings, per linear inch of screen. Depending on the size of the crumb produced and under what conditions, 99% or more of the steel and fabric can be removed. The typical process to make crumb involves three stages. First, the scrap tire is reduced to 2 -inch to 4-inch size shreds by a slow speed shear shredder or shredders. Second, the shreds go through two or three successively narrower blade shredders to further reduce the shreds to 3/8-inch or less.

Finally, the particles are processed to even smaller mesh sizes by using cracking or grinding rolling mills. Screens and gravity separators are used to remove metal, and aspiration equipment is used to remove fibers. X. PREVALENT AND NEW INNOVATIONS IN USE OF CRUMB
RUBBER

provides a softer playing surface for children and athletes which creates fewer ground-related injuries. Compared to traditional materials used as surfaces of playgrounds, scrap tire chips are economical, clean, non-toxic, do not float and are easy to maintain. Crumb rubber retards weed growth, does not decay or attract insects, animals or rodents, and has roughly twice the cushioning effect of other materials. The addition of rubber particles at the correct volume and depth dramatically reduces soil compaction. The result is better quality turf which is less susceptible to disease and requires up to 30 percent less water, fertilizer and pesticides. This treatment apparently is effective for between 25 - 50 years, offering a long term solution to heavily used areas that would normally require decompaction more frequently. Crumb rubber can also serve as a top dressing application which consists of sprinkling crumb over grass in a 3/4-inch layer, protecting established grass and new growth. This method is less disruptive and easier than tilling crumb rubber into the soil. A related usefor crumb rubber is mixing it with sand or soil in horse arenas, race tracks and other equestrian surfaces. This makes the surfaces looser and softer, thereby reducing concussions to riders and muscle strain and fatigue for horses. D. Used in Compost sewage sludge Wood chips can be replaced with rubber bits in the composting of municipal waste. The crumb can be reused again and again, while wood chips used in the same applications deteriorate and must be replaced more often. One part rubber chips and two parts hardwood chips are mixed with one part biosolids and a small amount of yard trimmings to produce compost. E. Used as Mulch Using crumb rubber as mulch conserves moisture, suppresses weed growth, and reduces the amount of pesticides, water and fertilizers needed in landscaping and agricultural applications. It does not decompose and does not attract insects or rodents. Rubber mulch is more expensive than wood varieties, but it lasts years longer. It is heavier than most wood mulch products and will not float or blow away. F. Used for making sound proof panels / boards Another recent innovation in use of crumb rubber is in manufacturing Soundproof boards. This is a very economic and very effective soundproof material which can be applied under the floor to reduce the impact noise made by foot step and similar noises. G. Rubbercrete This is another Unique product incorporating rubber crumb from used car tyres. Rubbercrete Plaster / Screed product which can be used instead of conventional materials is easy to mix and apply. It is a substitute for the earth's natural aggregates.It has the following advantages : Rubbercrete has acoustic characteristics 66% better than ordinary plaster and dry lining. Rubbercrete is 83% more thermally efficient than ordinary concrete. Approx 70% of Rubbercrete product is rubber crumb.

A. CRM (crumb rubber-modified asphalt) CRM is a general term used to identify a group of technologies which incorporates scrap tire rubber into asphalt paving materials. The crumb can also be used in asphalt to provide durable and long-lasting roads, reduce noise level and cracking of road surfaces. It can also increase flexibility in cold weather and improve drainage of excess water so as to better the service life of the roads. Compared to traditional high-filled compounds, this product can be combined with chalk to achieve a much lower density. B. Extruded Products from Molded and Crumb rubber In the past few years, the increasing supply of crumb rubber and a newly developed moisture curing urethane binder has led to a rapid increase in the number of products made by simple compression molding. Typically, this method is used to produce high-volume, low-tech products., such as livestock mats, railroad crossings, removable speed bumps and athletic mats.Using crumb rubber in combination with urethane binder to produce molded products enables manufacturers to significantly reduce the processing time and material costs. However, this application is limited to products where only moderate tensile strength and abrasion resistance is required. The rubber tire recycling process comprises the steps of granulating rubber tires to form coarse rubber crumbs, mixing the coarse rubber crumbs with coarse siliceous grains to form a closely packed mixture of coarse particles that are roughly commensurate in size, thoroughly wetting the surfaces of the coarse particles with a polymerizable liquid binder to provide a viscous slurry, casting the slurry into a sheet-like configuration, and curing the sheet-like configuration under sufficient heat and for a sufficient time to provide an environmentally compatible sheet-like product, e.g. a paver or tile for driveways, or a shingle for roof tops, that is characterized by excellent weather, wear and chemical resistance. C. For Atheletic fields and tracks Crumb rubber is also used on running and jogging tracks, athletic fields and golf courses because crumb provides resiliency , durability , enhances drainage capability . It also

H. Rubber-crumb-reinforced cement-concrete Another latest breakthrough in the technology of using ground rubber waste is the Rubber-crumb-reinforced cement-concrete. It provides resistance to cracking, increase resistance to acid rain, lower weight, improve shock wave absorption, lower heat conductivity and improve the acoustical environment. The structures preferably are made of concrete having a predetermined proportion (from about 1 to about 30 parts by

weight per 100 parts by weight of cement) of recycled scrap rubber crumbs which are preferably undirectionally aligned in the cross-section of the structures. I. Sprayed Layers of Crumb Rubber In combination with a moisture curing urethane binder, crumb rubber can be sprayed onto surfaces where elastic, waterproof, corrosion resistant or vibration and impact dampening properties are desirable. This method has a wide range of possible application and has a good potential for growth. Discussed above have been the applications of waste rubber in the form of chips/ crumbs / powder in construction activity. The following section puts light on the technology of building using whole used car tyres. XI. EARTHSHIPS : AN INNOVATIVE CONCEPT OF BUILDING WITH
USED TYRES

Earthships are constructed using the following reclaimed materials: Used Car Tyres Aluminium cans Plastic bottles Glass bottles Scrap metal Just about anything you have locally as waste

The amount of dense mass surrounding every room provides a thermal battery like no other in construction history. A buried tyre will virtually last forever Tyres are strong but not brittle. A tyre wall can vibrate or move without any facture or failure Low specific skill requirements Secondary materials can be used for interior walls include glass bottles, cans, plastic bottles. Septic tanks can also be built using the discarded tyres by this method.

The Earthship is based on earth rammed tyre walls giving thermal mass to store heat. They are heavyweight high quality buildings, designed with a comfortable low cost future in mind. They run free and yet can be realized at similar costs to the conventional utility dependant lightweights that are currently proliferating. A. STRUCTURAL FEATURES Earthships are designed to join the earth rather than resist it Primary building block is used automobile tyres rammed with earth Floats on the earth resulting in forgiving structure that has potential to move with the earth. No point loading. Massive walls are around 3 feet wide. They are their own foundations. No foundation required Tyres are key to providing major structural strength and performance.

B. TYPES OF EARTHSHIPS 1. Packaged They are affordable, simple, and of conventional shapes 2. Modular - plans composed Hut or U rooms linked by greenhouse hallway 3. Hybrid - combines Packaged and Modular designs 4. Custom

CONCLUSION The above study clearly points out the gaps and oppurtunities that exist in the potential use of rubber waste to create environmentally sound and economically viable products for mass use in construction industry related applications. REFERENCES
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