How Carlisle TyrFil Is Redefining Tire Sustainability

By Danny Gavin, Communications Coordinator, Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) --

When conversations turn to sustainability, many manufacturers focus on reducing waste, conserving resources, or finding new ways to lower their environmental footprint. For AEM member company Carlisle TyrFil, sustainability began with a different challenge: solving customer challenges.

More than two decades ago, the flatproofing industry faced a growing problem. A common practice known as "chunking" involved filling tires with pieces of used tire fill to reduce material costs. While inexpensive, the approach often resulted in tires that generated excessive heat, failed prematurely, and created safety concerns for equipment operators.

Rather than accepting the status quo, Carlisle TyrFil developed a solution that would eventually become one of the industry's first closed-loop recycling systems.

"What started as a need to improve flatproofing performance became an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how materials could be recovered and reused," said Matt Pearson, vice president, global sales at Carlisle TyrFil. "The sustainability impact came from solving a real-world problem for customers."

The Northeast leg of the AEM Manufacturing Express is proud to make a stop at Carlisle TyrFil on Sep. 16, 2026. For more information and to follow along with the tour, visit manufacturingexpress.org.

Turning Waste Into a Resource

At the center of Carlisle TyrFil's sustainability strategy is a simple principle: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Traditionally, when a polyurethane-filled tire reached the end of its service life, both the tire casing and the cured fill inside were often treated as waste. Carlisle TyrFil saw value in both materials.

Reuse comes first. When a tire's tread wears out but the casing remains intact, the tire can be retreaded and returned to service. Testing conducted with retreaders found that polyurethane fill maintained its performance through multiple retreading cycles, allowing a single tire casing to deliver significantly more value over its lifetime.

When a casing can no longer be reused, that's when the recycling process begins.

Using its patented recycling technology, the cured polyurethane fill is recovered, granulated, and blended back into new tire fill. Unlike earlier industry methods that simply embedded chunks of old material into new tires, Carlisle TyrFil's Recycling Technology creates a homogenous mixture that performs like virgin fill.

The process allows tires to be filled with up to 65% reclaimed material, reducing the need for virgin petrochemicals while maintaining product performance.

"Keeping materials in use longer is the foundation of a circular economy," Pearson said. "Our technology allows recovered polyurethane to re-enter the same product stream and continue delivering the performance customers expect."

Since 2005, the company estimates its recycling technology has diverted more than 30 million pounds of used tire fill from landfills, equivalent to roughly 7.3 million tires, while reducing petroleum distillate consumption by more than 125,000 barrels.

"Our focus has always been on finding better ways to solve customer problems. The fact that those solutions also reduce waste, conserve resources, and support a more circular economy makes the impact even greater." -- Matt Pearson

Supporting a Circular Economy

The company's approach represents more than recycling. It reflects the principles of a circular economy, where materials remain in productive use rather than being discarded after a single lifecycle.

The company believes one of the most significant differentiators between its flatproofing solution and alternative tire technologies is the ability to recover and reuse materials repeatedly.

A tire processed with TyrFil can be retreaded multiple times. When it finally reaches the end of its useful life, the casing and polyurethane fill can both be recovered and reintroduced into the supply chain. By contrast, many solid rubber tires are more difficult to recycle and may be discarded at the end of their service life.

"What makes this truly circular is that the material doesn't get downgraded into another application," Pearson said. "It comes back into the same product, performing the same job at the same standard."

That closed-loop model helps maximize material utilization while reducing waste and resource consumption throughout the product lifecycle.

Extending Tire Life Reduces Environmental Impact

The sustainability benefits extend beyond recycling - according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, approximately one billion tires reach the end of their lives each year globally. Many are replaced long before their usable tread life is exhausted due to flats, punctures, or damage caused by operating under improper tire pressure.

Flatproofing helps eliminate many of those failure modes. By maintaining consistent internal pressure and preventing puncture-related failures, TyrFil-filled tires are designed to deliver their full expected tread life. This reduces the frequency of tire replacements, lowers material consumption, and minimizes the energy and resources required to manufacture and transport replacement tires.

The environmental benefits are closely tied to business benefits as well. For equipment owners, fewer flats mean:

• Less downtime
• Fewer service calls
• Reduced labor costs
• Greater equipment utilization.

In industries where uptime directly impacts profitability, extending tire life also improves total cost of ownership.

"Every premature tire replacement represents materials, energy, transportation, and labor that have already been invested," Pearson said. "When you can extend tire life and recover materials at the end of that lifecycle, you're delivering both environmental and economic value."

Sustainability is everyone's business. Whether it's through aligning with ever-evolving regulations or working to support a more viable world, the non-road equipment manufacturing industry and its future depend on its ability to maximize efficiency, minimize cost, and use natural resources responsibly. Learn more.

Preparing for What's Next

Looking ahead, Carlisle TyrFil sees sustainability becoming an increasingly important factor in purchasing decisions. Many municipalities, universities, airports, and large industrial buyers are beginning to incorporate environmental performance criteria into procurement requirements. Recycled content, disposal pathways, and lifecycle impacts are becoming measurable factors in equipment and product evaluations.

The company also expects broader industry trends, including electrification and data-driven fleet management, to influence future tire and flatproofing solutions.

As equipment becomes increasingly connected, fleet managers have more visibility into operating costs and failure patterns than ever before. That data helps organizations shift from reactive maintenance to preventative strategies that improve both performance and sustainability outcomes.

"We're seeing sustainability move from a preference to a requirement," Pearson said. "Organizations increasingly want measurable results and documented outcomes. Companies that can demonstrate those benefits will be well-positioned for the future."

Innovation Driving Long-Term Impact

For Carlisle TyrFil, innovation and sustainability remain inseparable. By transforming what was once considered waste into a reusable resource, the company has built a business model that supports both environmental stewardship and customer value. The result is a system that extends tire life, reduces landfill waste, conserves raw materials, and helps equipment operators maximize productivity.

As manufacturers across the equipment industry look for ways to support circular economy initiatives, Carlisle TyrFil's approach demonstrates how innovation can create meaningful environmental impact while delivering measurable business benefits.

"Our focus has always been on finding better ways to solve customer problems," Pearson said. "The fact that those solutions also reduce waste, conserve resources, and support a more circular economy makes the impact even greater."