Over the past two years there have been favored more and more rubber sidewalks in Central New York gaining acceptance as a niche product. The sidewalk material is formed from a mixture of tyre-derived rubber granulate, small stones and liquid binder…

- whereas recycled rubber makes up 50% of the mixture. The rubber can be provided dyed in a variety of colors; the finished product has a speckled appearance and for a springier but less durable pavement, the sidewalk also can be installed without stones.

One of the factors to choose rubber sidewalks over asphalt or concrete was certainly the environmental benefit of recycling tyres, but a more pressing concern was to use a porous material that would allow water to run through which helps eliminate a stormwater run-off problem.

The F. Franklin Moon Library at the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY for example installed a Flexi-Pave rubber sidewalk in August 2008 due to the unique advantage that this kind of material is permeable to water. So the College was able to install heating coils beneath the sidewalk. On the one hand that choice avoids the need for salt, sand or snow shoveling during the winter, on the other hand students won´t track salt into the newly renovated building, officials said.

About 40 shredded tyres go into every 30 sqm of the innovative rubber sidewalk, more than 6000 tyres were recycled for all the pavements installed in New York over the past two years - like there are new sidewalks at Liverpool Public Library, Onondaga Community College, Turning Stone Casino, Elmcrest Children´s Center and other locations.

Literary Source: ScrapTireNews September 2008

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