Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group has received International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certification verifying that its mining tyre recycling facility in Chile processes circular feedstocks.

“Kal Tire is committed to promoting a circular economy where recycled mining tire products are given their highest and best use,” says Dan Allan, Senior VP, Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group. “This ISCC PLUS certification ensures customers can confidently source our recycling facility’s outputs knowing they’re 100 % derived from waste materials.”

At Kal Tire’s facility in northern Chile, end-of-life ultra-class tyres are converted to their base elements (carbon black, oil and steel) so they can be reused in new products instead of raw materials. The facility’s thermal conversion processes uses heat and friction to induce a process that sees virtually 100% of the tyre reused.

The ISCC PLUS certification verifies the Chile recycling facility meets the circular materials standards for reclaimed oil, carbon black and syngas using a mass balance chain of custody approach. ISCC is a global leader in standards development for chemically recycled sustainable materials. Kal Tire is one of just a few mining tyre recycling facilities in the world that the company is aware of to have achieved ISCC PLUS certification for producing circular feedstocks— generating outputs that are 100% ISCC PLUS compliant.

As more and more organisations look to demonstrate the sustainability and circularity of their supply chain, Kal Tire’s ISCC-certified products will provide third-party validation for customers seeking sustainable, circular materials.

“Years ago, we set out to invest in a solution at the top of the mining tyre recycling hierarchy to help customers solve the great challenge of handling end-of-life mining tyres more sustainably, at a time when government also began calling for environmental leadership and contribution to climate action plans,”says Allan. “We’re proud to now be at this stage with our certified and high quality outputs, helping customers create a greener supply chain and a lower carbon future.”

Kal Tire’s facility has the capacity to process five 63 in tyres (20,000 kg) every day—creating 8,000 kg of carbon black, 6,500 litres of oil, 4,000 kg of steel and enough synthetic gas to fuel the plant itself for seven hours. The company is seeing growing demand for recovered carbon black (rCB), which can be used to produce tyres and plastic products.