The rubber obtained from tyre recycling is a raw material used in various sectors in a wide array of applications among which the most prominent and import market is the sport's one where it is being used as infill material of artificial turf to give elasticity. This infill material made from polyurethane coated rubber granulate SBR present several drawbacks in terms of performance, environment and health: rigidity of the polyurethane coating, polyurethane dust dispersion in the air ( harmful dispersion in the environment of the polyurethane’s fine dust that is about 2-3% in weight) due to the friction with shoes and subsequent risk of inhalation. Considering that the infill material necessary for one field is about 100 Ton, during its life span about 2-3 tons of dust are dispersed in the water and in the air.
500 thousand tons of recycled tires end up every year in the European football fields. The Synthetic Turf Council estimates that the market for artificial turf is already over 500 million € per year, and is growing very quickly. Considering the large variety of different features and customer requirements for artificial field (infill material, turf fibres and turf height) and the potential needs of including, other than the substratum, a primary and/or secondary backing to install the turf, a draining system, and some fencing, the infill material may impact between 20% and 70% the artificial turf final cost, describing a market able to demand every year between 100M€ and 350M€ for the infill materials, whereas the volume of the global market for artificial turf and children playgrounds will increase by an average of approximately 15% annually, in the coming years.
Eclipse aims to introduce a new generation of coated recycled rubber granulates for infill material with better elasticity performance, which is also greener, healthier and more sustainable than the current in use. The product will offer higher quality, better performance, and a better value for money when compared to its direct competitor materials, namely the recycled black SBR, EPDM and green coated SBR, being 50-60% cheaper, more sustainable (10% virgin rubber/90% recycled rubber) and less polluting (Production CO2 emissions are 3 to 16 times lower than competitors producition process).
Eclipse project is worth to invest to increase people awareness on the environmental impact of rubber recycle and sustainability, helping to expand the artificial turf market size providing a solution that meets the needs of the infill materials industry and bringing many benefits for health and environment such as water savings (up to 9.25 billion litres of water saved in North America as of 2013), reduction in noxious emission from lawn mowers (1 hour usage of a push mower is equivalent to 11 cars, while 1 hour usage of a riding mower is equivalent to 34 cars) and municipal solid waste (the third largest component of municipal solid waste for landfills according to the Environmental Protection Agency EPA), keeping more than 105 million used tyres out of landfills, and eliminating the need for nearly 80 million pounds of harmful pesticides, weed-killers and fertilizers (by-products of the insecticide chlorpyrifos were found in 93% of urine samples from children ages 3 to 13) which are usually applied to “natural” turf every year.
