A pioneer from the cycling industry

What do you do when everyone says it can't be done? You dig in deeper, keep researching, and prove them wrong. SCHWALBE has become the first company in the world to develop a tire recycling process that returns every single material back into the production cycle.

For years (decades, really) industries across the bord have been talking about how crucial a circular economy will be for our economic and environmental future. Action, however, remains rare. Too complex, too costly, too uncertain. And then along comes SCHWALBE, a family-owned business from the cycling world, to show that it is possible…

Around 3.4 million tons of used tires are generated across Europe every year. A third of them are incinerated for “thermal recovery”, and two thirds are shredded into granulates. While the cycling industry's share of that figure is modest, SCHWALBE made it a core priority early on to find a way to give their products a second life.

Recycling Without Waste or Emissions

The family-run company, headquartered in Reichshof (about 50km east of Cologne), has been defined by its strong social and environmental commitment since its founding. A recycling system for inner tubes has been in place since 2015, and today a standard SCHWALBE tube contains 20% recycled rubber.

For tires, however, the process is considerably more complex. Unlike tubes, tires are made up of multiple different components that first need to be separated and reprocessed – not just to become a simple rubber mat (which would be downcycling), but to actually become a new tire again, closing the loop entirely.

Working alongside the TH Köln university and Pyrum Innovations AG, a German start-up, SCHWALBE spent years developing a cradle-to-cradle solution – and successfully brought it to life in 2022.

Here's how the process works: used tires are thermally broken down through a pyrolysis process. Because it operates without oxygen, nothing is burned and no emissions are released. The vapor produced condenses into high-quality oil, which industry buyers use as a substitute for crude oil. The gas generated powers the facility itself, making it completely energy self-sufficient. And most importantly: the carbon black recovered from pyrolysis is used by SCHWALBE in the production of new tires.

Around 2,200,000 recycled tires since 2022

In recognition of this commitment and the broader transformation of its business model, SCHWALBE was awarded the German Sustainability Award in 2025.

But the benefits of this holistic recycling process go beyond the environmental.

SCHWALBE is also clear about the long-term economic upside. The investment may be significant, but for manufacturing companies, securing reliable access to raw materials (especially given today’s geopolitical uncertainty) is a critical business consideration in its own right.