Recycled Rubber Roads

The ask

Build a crumb-rubber processing plant that grinds end-of-life tyres and sells rubberised asphalt modifier to road contractors — turning Bangladesh's tyre waste into a premium paving material that cuts pothole maintenance by 30–50%.

Why now

Bangladesh registers over 400,000 new vehicles per year; the tyre waste pile-up has no formal outlet and open burning is under increasing regulatory pressure. India, the UAE, and several African markets have commercially proven rubberised bitumen at scale, providing a clear technology blueprint. RHD and LGED are both under pressure to lower road life-cycle costs after chronic pothole complaints on newly built roads.

Why Bangladesh

Dhaka and Chattogram alone generate an estimated 50,000+ tonnes of scrap tyres annually with virtually no formal collection infrastructure — raw material is cheap or free. Bangladesh's high-humidity climate accelerates conventional asphalt cracking, making the durability premium of rubber-modified asphalt especially valuable. The road construction sector is one of the largest government spending categories, giving a qualified supplier a captive B2G market.

As a business

Revenue comes from two directions: tipping fees charged to tyre shops and garages for disposal (৳5–15 per tyre) plus sale of crumb rubber modifier to asphalt plants at ৳60–90/kg — a spread that can yield 40–55% gross margins once the shredding line is running. Longer term, coloured crumb rubber sold to playground and sports-surface manufacturers commands a 3× price premium. The B2G sales cycle is slow but sticky once approved on a contractor's approved materials list.

Economics

Move the sliders to model your own crumb rubber plant. Defaults are order-of-magnitude estimates — pressure-testing them is part of what a founder pitches us.

What ZEPH would back

A founder with a prior track record in industrial waste processing or road construction supply chains who can navigate LGED/RHD procurement and land an initial pilot contract. We want to see a working shredder line and a signed letter of intent from at least one asphalt plant before Series A conversations.

Impact

Processing 500 tyres/day yields 750 kg of crumb rubber, diverting ~54,000 tyres/year from open burning — which emits roughly 8–10 kg CO₂e per tyre — avoiding an estimated 450 t CO₂e/year at the default scale, plus eliminating toxic PAH and black-carbon pollution. Rubberised bitumen roads last 30–50% longer than conventional asphalt in Bangladesh's monsoon climate, cutting lifecycle road maintenance costs by an estimated $150,000/km over 10 years — a compelling B2G value proposition for RHD and LGED. Bangladesh currently imports bitumen modifier additives; crumb rubber partially displaces these, saving hard currency while giving the road sector a domestic, traceable sustainability story.