Reclaim rubber vs virgin natural rubber: the real cost
The short answer: the saving is not the difference in price per kilo. It is the difference in cost per kilo of finished compound at the properties you have to hold — and that turns on one number: how much virgin rubber one kilo of reclaim actually displaces in your compound.
The mistake almost everyone makes first
A purchase manager puts the reclaim price next to the virgin natural rubber price, sees a large gap, and builds a saving out of that gap. Then the compound comes back short on tensile, the replacement level is cut, and the saving quietly shrinks to something nobody wants to put in writing.
The gap between the two prices is real. It is just not the answer. The answer is what a kilo of your finished compound costs, at the properties your specification demands.
What actually decides the saving
- The replacement level your compound tolerates. This is the whole calculation. Everything else is arithmetic around it.
- The grade you buy. A higher-tensile reclaim allows a higher replacement level, so it takes more virgin rubber out per kilo. That is where the saving actually comes from — not from the cheaper bag.
- Which property is your constraint. Tensile, tear, hardness, fatigue or processing. The tightest one sets your ceiling.
- Landed cost, not ex-works. Freight, handling and duty belong in the number.
Why grade choice is the whole game
This is the part that gets decided wrongly most often, in both directions.
| Grade | Tensile | Where it earns its place |
|---|---|---|
| Durobond | 10–11 MPa | Compounds with no headroom in the specification. Highest replacement level, so the most virgin rubber displaced per kilo |
| NRM80 | 8 MPa | The workhorse — tyre compounds and technical goods with a real tensile requirement |
| NRM70 | 7 MPa | General tyre, belting, hose and moulded goods |
| NRM40 | 4–5 MPa | Cost-led compounds — mats, tiles, sheet, general moulded rubber |
Buying more tensile than the specification asks for is money spent on nothing. Buying less forces the replacement level down and costs more than the cheaper grade saved. When we are asked to recommend a grade, the honest answer is often a lower one than the buyer expected, with a small formulation adjustment.
The calculation, step by step
Fill this in with your own figures and your own trial result. It is the only version of this sum that will survive a question from your finance team.
| # | What you need | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Current compound cost per kg | Your existing recipe at landed prices |
| 2 | Properties you must hold | The customer specification, not the current test values |
| 3 | Grade and replacement level | Our grade recommendation, then your own trial result |
| 4 | Landed cost of the reclaim | Quoted price plus freight, handling, duty |
| 5 | Any other recipe change the trial forced | The trial. Do not assume there is none |
| 6 | New compound cost per kg | Rebuild the recipe cost with 3, 4 and 5 |
| 7 | Saving = 1 minus 6, per kg, times annual volume | This is the number worth signing |
If a supplier hands you a percentage saving without steps 2, 3 and 5, that percentage came from a brochure, not from your compound.
What else moves besides price
Two things belong in the decision even though they do not appear in the per-kilo sum.
Price behaviour. Virgin natural rubber moves with the commodity market and with weather in the producing countries. Reclaim is priced off recovered tyre rubber. Different market, different curve. Some of your recipe stops moving with a price you cannot control — and for a plant working to annual contracts, predictability is worth something on its own.
Consistency, or the lack of it. Reclaim has a reputation for being inconsistent, and it is usually earned at the scrap yard rather than in the plant. If your supplier cannot hand you batch-wise test values and a COA with the consignment, your calculated saving is theoretical. Every consignment we ship carries its batch numbers and its own test values from our laboratory, so a trial you run in March can be repeated in September.
If your compound is oil-heavy rather than polymer-heavy, the other half of this question is the process oil side — where RRP replaces up to 50% of the oil.
Just the application and the property targets you have to hold. No formulation details needed. We reply with a grade and a starting replacement level the same working day.
Is reclaim rubber cheaper than virgin natural rubber?
Per kilo, yes. But the price per kilo is not the saving. What matters is the cost per kilo of finished compound at the properties you have to hold, because one kilo of reclaim does not displace one kilo of virgin natural rubber in every compound. The honest comparison is compound cost against compound properties, not bag price against bag price.
How much virgin rubber can reclaim replace?
It depends on the grade and on the property that constrains your compound. A higher-tensile grade such as Durobond at 10-11 MPa allows a higher replacement level than a 4-5 MPa grade, which is exactly why the grade choice decides the saving.
Which grade should I be costing with?
Start from the property you must hold, not from the cheapest grade. Over-specifying reclaim is one of the quietest ways a compound loses money - you pay for tensile the specification never asked for. Under-specifying costs more, because the replacement level has to come down.
Does using reclaim change my process cost?
It can change how the batch behaves on the mill and in the mixer. Whether that helps or hurts depends on your compound and your equipment, so treat it as something to measure in the trial rather than a number to assume.
What should I include in the calculation?
Landed cost, not ex-works price - freight, handling and any duty. Then the replacement level your own trial proves, and any change in the rest of the recipe that the trial forces. Anything else is guesswork.
How do I prove the number before committing?
Run one lab batch against your current control and cost both. A single-pallet trial is enough to produce a defensible number for your purchase file.