毎年、大量の使用済みタイヤが廃棄され、多くの国でごみ問題となっています。

READING

Large numbers of used tires are discarded every year, creating a waste problem in many countries. One way to use this material is to process old tires into small pieces of rubber and mix them with asphalt for road construction. This type of pavement is already being used in some areas as an alternative to ordinary asphalt.

Supporters point to several advantages. Large amounts of rubber from old tires can be added to road materials. Therefore, fewer tires need to be treated as waste. There is another benefit. Rubber can make pavement more resistant to cracking and damage caused by traffic or temperature changes. As a result, roads may remain in good condition longer than those made with conventional asphalt.

That said, critics point out some problems. Used tires must be broken into small, uniform pieces and carefully separated before being mixed with asphalt. These techniques can make the installation process more expensive than that of ordinary asphalt. Moreover, once rubber is combined with asphalt, the resulting material becomes more complex. When roads are later removed, it may therefore be difficult to process the old pavement back into ordinary asphalt for further use.