The year 2020 has been a year like no other. The pandemic has brought everyone on the same platform. We all have been a mute witness to the rage of Nature and the apocalypse it can create. The question which persists in my mind is ‘Have we really learnt any lessons from the same?’ Are we going to treat Mother Earth better and build a sustainable planet for our future generation?

On a brighter note, most economies are showing signs of phenomenal recovery. The automobile sector looks to be one of the biggest beneficiaries. Vehicular traffic on the road and the number of new vehicle registrations are a big indicator of the same. In fact, an Indian two-wheeler manufacturer broke its own export record in December 2020. Our belief has proved true again. The human race has endured many such pandemics throughout the years of evolution and evolved better, stronger, smarter.

Processing ELTs

Indogreen Enviro has been involved in the process of ELTs (End of life Tyres) for about a decade.

We have been witnessing the growth of the tyre recycling industry. From the 1970-2000, the majority of organised ELT recycling was about making ‘Devulcanised rubber reclaim sheets.’ These sheets are used in a wide range of applications like tyre re-treads, bicycle tyres, conveyor belts, rubber compounds to name a few.

From 2000 onwards the market started changing due to the introduction of radial tyres. The radial tyres had high tensile steel in them and now could not be grinded directly like the nylon tyres. They need new technology Shredders, Raspers, Granulators to make it ready for grinding. This decade saw many high technology shredding and granulation plants coming up across the country. This included India’s largest and fully automated 100 Mt/annum plant till date Vapi, Gujarat. These granulation plants created a new market for ELT granules-based playground tiles and mats. The CRMB(Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen) also gained acceptance in large national road construction projects.

Batch type pyrolysis plants

From 2005 onwards, there was a new tyre recycling technology introduced to the Indian market - ‘Batch type pyrolysis plants.’ These plants were initially imported from China. Though profitable, they were extremely unstable, environmentally non-compliant and unsafe for operation. Due to their profitability ,By the year 2019,India had more than 1000 batch type-pyrolysis plants installed. The combined tyre requirement per day for these plants was about 10,000 Mt/day. That would mean a requirement of 10,00,000 passenger car tyres every day, to give a perspective. This monster had a huge appetite that could not be met with tyres from India. So these pyrolysis companies started looking for imported tyres with a perpetual supply possibility from round the globe.

There was only one challenge. The pyrolysis plants are not allowed to import tyres. The shredding companies were allowed to import with a license from DGFT. The batch type pyrolysis companies started buying container loads of tyres from the shredding companies. India started importing about 900,000 MT annually making it the largest importer of ELT in the world until July 2019.The Public Interest Litigation filed against the ‘Batch type pyrolysis plants’ put the brakes on these transactions. The government was forced to take cognisance of the humungous nature of the impending matter at hand.

This is the India story, but could be a similar story for any country from Asia where the Scrap Tyre disposal policy is not yet framed or implemented. I am taking the stance of the agitator than just being a mute spectator. There is so much that can be done than what is being done today.

Scrap tyre disposal policy

There is a strong buzz about ‘Circular Economy’ in Europe and the US. Large tyre companies and chemical giants are investing in various tyre technologies to bring the derivatives from the tyres to be reused in manufacturing new tyres. In India, we don’t even have a national scrap tyre disposal policy. Most local tyre companies are still waiting for an ‘EPR’ to start thinking of sustainable disposal. 

In fact, we as a country need ‘Circular economy.’ The responsibly recycled ELT can create high quality reclaim rubber, High calorific value oil with possibility on further hydro treatment to distil commercial grade diesel & petrol, commercial grade carbon black for manufacturing pigments, etc, liberated fibre to make thermoplastics, liberated gases that can be further processed, this can go on and on. There is so much of interest from large companies to set up plants to process this waste but they hesitate because of the lack of a government framework to support the huge capital investment required.

Despite all odds, some companies from India have done some amazing work in developing innovative ELT recycling technologies. A fine example would be Radhe Renewable Energy Development Ltd, Rajkot. They conceived, developed and now operate the ‘World Largest 100 MT Per Day Single Reactor Continuous Pyrolysis Plant ‘ for the last 8 years in Bhilwara, Rajasthan. No other company from around the globe can boast of this feat.In fact some of the large global giants who were looking for a commercial scale large continuous plant could not believe that such a plant and technology existed, that too from a non-descript town from India. This company now supplies ASTM grade Carbon Black and High Calorie fuel to Indian tyre industry beginning the ‘Circular Economy.’

Another interesting Company is Hotfut Sports, an award-winning sports infrastructure development and management company that has been one of the largest consumers of turf technology and synthetic turf products across its various formats. These products have a primary infill requirement of SBR rubber. HotFut has consciously been adapting its procurement process to ensure all SBR and infill / shock-pad requirements are sourced responsibly using recycled ELT’s / rubber scrap making all their facilities more environmentally friendly. They have structured solutions for forward thinking tyre companies wanting to pro-actively process their ELT with a win -win proposition. Many major tyre companies have found their solution very sustainable as well as profitable.

Last year, Internet was abuzz about this start up ‘Blink Green’ from Pune, India. They used ELT for making attractive ladies’ footwear and purses. They have found the utility of this wonderful waste and now is utilising her designing skill and the expertise of the cobble community to churn out beautiful, durable items for the domestic and global market.

These kinds of stories are emerging from all across the continent Imagine the power of scalability of these kind of products with the right kind of financial and marketing support.

I look forward to the day (soon) when we have the ‘Scrap tyre disposal policy’ is finally rolled out and the top tyre companies wait for the EPR policy is over. With a sizeable contribution coming out of their respective CSR budgets and ATMA’s able guidance, a national body to look at new & innovative sustainable disposal practices for ELT could be established. This would be a giant first step taken in the Asian subcontinent towards sustainable recycling of this incredible waste and thus setting a precedence for other countries to follow.

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The Government of Kerala has approved the twelfth phase of the Rubber Production Incentive Scheme, extending support to natural rubber growers through a guaranteed price mechanism.

The scheme is designed to ensure a price of INR 250 per kilogram for RSS 4 grade sheet rubber. Growers who are not yet enrolled may register for the programme until 23 October 2026, according to an official statement issued on 6 August in Kottayam.

Applicants seeking new registration must submit an Aadhaar card, bank passbook copy, current year land tax receipt and a photograph to their respective Rubber Producers’ Societies. Existing participants are required to renew their registration by providing land tax receipts for the 2026–27 period.

The release added that sale invoices or purchase bills submitted under the scheme must originate from licensed dealers who comply with statutory return requirements. Further details are available through the nearest Rubber Board office.

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The Rubber Board of India has launched a series of educational videos as part of the iSPEED (INROAD Skilling and Production Efficiency Enhancement Drive) programme, an INR 1.50-billion initiative aimed at enhancing skill development, quality improvement and infrastructure building within the natural rubber sector. This launch comes as the plantation activities under the larger Project INROAD (Indian Natural Rubber Operations for Assisted Development) in Northeast India approach completion, shifting focus towards productivity and quality enhancement through modern training and facilities.

The newly released video series targets nearly 300,000 rubber growers in the region, covering five essential processing areas: Rubber Tapping, Rain Guarding, Grading, Rubber Sheet Making and Scientific Smokehouses. To ensure broad accessibility, the modules have been produced in Assamese, Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam, enabling effective communication with diverse stakeholders across the natural rubber ecosystem.

The official release of the videos was conducted by Executive Director M Vasanthagesan, alongside Rubber Production Commissioner Dr Siju T Nair, other senior Board officials and representatives from the Indian tyre industry. Developed over the past year with technical assistance from the Rubber Board and the Rubber Research Institute of India, the educational content combines animation with real-life field demonstrations to simplify complex scientific practices for easy adoption.

Project INROAD represents a unique collaboration between the Indian tyre industry and the Rubber Board, with support from Apollo Tyres, CEAT, JK Tyre and MRF. Over the last five years, this partnership has facilitated new rubber plantations across approximately 180,000 hectares in 113 districts of Northeast India, establishing it as the country’s largest plantation development programme of its kind.

Mohan Kurian, Chairman, INROAD Project, said, "Skill development and adoption of scientific practices are essential for improving both productivity and quality in the natural rubber sector. These multilingual videos will serve as an effective training resource for growers and complement the Rubber Board's ongoing extension efforts across the country.”

Sanjiv Saxena, Convener, ATMA Supply Chain & Resources (SCR) Group, said, "The objective of the participating member companies under INROAD is to ensure that rubber growers benefit the most from a stronger natural rubber value chain. By improving productivity and quality, we aim to help farmers realise better returns while strengthening the sustainability of the entire ecosystem."

Muraligopal, who played a key role in coordinating the development of the videos, said, "These videos are the result of close collaboration with the Rubber Board, RRII and field teams across the Northeast. Their guidance and support helped us develop practical, farmer-friendly training modules based on scientific best practices."

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Zeon Corporation has finalised the construction of a new bench-scale facility at its Tokuyama Plant in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, dedicated to advancing the efficient production of butadiene from sustainable ethanol sources. The project, which broke ground in July 2025, represents a strategic move to establish a naphtha-independent raw material supply chain, thereby bolstering both corporate sustainability and the broader transition towards a carbon-neutral society. The facility is slated to commence full-scale operations in January 2027, with the ultimate goal of achieving commercial viability by 2034.

A commemorative ceremony took place at the plant site on 31 July 2026, drawing a total of 46 attendees. The gathering included official representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and local governmental bodies from Yamaguchi Prefecture and Shunan City. Also present were delegates from the Yokohama Rubber Company, the construction contractor and various affiliated firms, alongside Zeon’s leadership, including Akira Honma, the Corporate Officer and Tokuyama Plant Manager.

This initiative forms one half of a dual-themed research and development programme undertaken in partnership with Yokohama Rubber, under the auspices of NEDO’s Green Innovation Fund. The collaborative effort is focused on the social implementation of technologies for synthesising both butadiene and isoprene from renewable biological materials by the 2030s. As part of this process, Zeon is set to produce a prototype polybutadiene rubber using the output from the new bench-scale facility, while Yokohama Rubber will subsequently manufacture test tyres from this material and conduct performance evaluations on test tracks.

Both companies have outlined a clear roadmap, intending to finalise the core technology for societal deployment by 2030 through the operation of a larger pilot plant, with full-scale commercialisation targeted for 2034. The bench-scale facility is a critical precursor in this phased approach, providing essential data for the scale-up process.

The broader project encompasses two selected NEDO themes, both subsidised through the Green Innovation Fund. The first involves the highly efficient synthesis of butadiene from ethanol, with technical cooperation from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. The second focuses on biotechnological pathways to directly produce butadiene and isoprene from plant-based materials, involving partnerships with the Institute of Science Tokyo and RIKEN. Both tracks aim to supplement synthetic rubber feedstocks and support closed-loop recycling, aligning with Japan’s 2050 net-zero emissions goal by fostering long-term industrial innovation.

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The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has released its Monthly Natural Rubber Statistical Report for June 2026, a month defined by price resilience amid conflicting market forces. The provisional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz triggered a sharp 20.29 percent drop in Brent crude oil prices to USD 85.40 per barrel. However, this bearish signal was counterbalanced by persistent supply constraints from El Niño-related weather disruptions across major producing regions.

Physical rubber prices posted broad-based gains across most grades. SMR-20 rose 1.39 percent to USD 2.32 per kilogramme, while STR-20 gained 2.61 percent to USD 2.55 per kilogramme. RSS-3 and RSS-4 advanced 4.98 percent and 5.88 percent to USD 3.09 and USD 2.84 per kilogramme, respectively, though latex eased 1.44 percent to USD 1.94 per kilogramme. On the trade front, China's imports surged 7.14 percent month-on-month, while India and Viet Nam declined. Export growth was recorded for Cambodia, Viet Nam and Indonesia, though Thai shipments contracted.

Global production for 2026 is projected at 15.310 million tonnes, up 2.3 percent from 2025, driven by gains in Thailand, China, India and Malaysia. However, June output fell 3.7 percent year-on-year to 1.207 million tonnes due to seasonal wintering and El Niño-related weather disruptions. Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia have introduced new incentive and governance measures to strengthen their sectors. Global consumption is forecast to grow 0.7 percent to 15.411 million tonnes in 2026, with June consumption rising 3.3 percent to 1.300 million tonnes, led by China and India amid steady tyre and EV-related demand.

Currency markets saw the Malaysian ringgit trade between RM3.96 and RM4.08 against the US dollar, while the Thai baht ranged from 32.56 to 33.24. In futures trading, the SHFE September 2026 contract averaged 17,580.68 CNY per tonne, down 0.45 percent month-on-month, while the SGX September contract averaged USD 2.24 per kilogramme, up 1.75 percent, with both reflecting tightening supply and firm downstream demand.

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