Grupa Recykl has launched the construction of a used tyre collection network in Lithuania. The network will be operated by APG, a Lithuanian company acquired by the Polish firm. This year, several dozen containers for used tyres will be placed in cooperation with tyre replacement points, transport companies and selective waste collection sites. This is only the beginning, as Grupa Recykl sees the Baltic states as an attractive direction for expansion. The company is also systematically analysing various investment proposals related to further value creation for the company and the capital group.
“We want Lithuania to be our starting point for further expansion into the other Baltic states and then into Scandinavia. We are beginning with Lithuania, where, after reorganising APG and adapting its structures and operating principles to our standards, and after investing in appropriate logistics and technical facilities, we gained the ability to carry out preliminary processing of collected tyres. Today, each truck carries at least 12 tonnes instead of the previous 10 tonnes, and the plan for the coming months assumes a further increase of several tonnes of used tyres per transport. Improving efficiency is a key element in increasing revenue, which will allow us to recover the expenditure incurred. This is what we are now focusing on,” said Maciej Jasiewicz, President of the Management Board.
Last year, Grupa Recykl, in cooperation with PFR TFI Foreign Expansion Fund 2 FIZAN, completed an acquisition in Lithuania: Antrinio Perdirbimo Grupė, or APG. The company is also conducting a second acquisition process in Germany involving Harzer Reifenhandel und Verwertung GmbH, or HRV. In April this year, Grupa Recykl and HRV signed an annex under which the parties extended the deadline for negotiations and fulfilment of the conditions precedent for concluding the final share purchase agreement until 31 December 2026.
“2026 does not necessarily have to mean a high pace of earnings growth. Development involves certain costs, although we treat a significant part of them as growth and investment-related expenditure,” emphasised Maciej Jasiewicz. “It is worth noting that the level of tyre collection and processing we have achieved has approached the maximum processing capacity of our installations. The decision to expand them is a choice of development strategy that will determine the future of the Group. The more political support and concrete EU decisions there are to maintain production in Europe, the closer we are to making such a decision. Everything, however, has its time, and the solutions adopted as part of reindustrialisation must prove durable and stable for business,” said Jasiewicz.
Over the past few years, Grupa Recykl has processed an average of around 130,000 tonnes of used tyres annually. Tyres contain valuable materials, including rubber, or more precisely natural rubber, which accounts for at least 50%, steel, which accounts for 15–20%, and textile fibres, which make up 10–13%. The rest consists of processing additives.
“This year we want to focus on developing sales of the SMAPOL asphalt additive and continuing work on technologies for processing textile fibres from tyres. Here again, the topic of Scandinavian markets returns, along with the possibility we are analysing of expanding our presence and joining, together with a local partner, the Swedish national tyre collection system. This still requires deeper analysis, but it is one of our strategic options when we talk about further development,” said Jasiewicz. “In Poland, we will continue investments aimed at improving process efficiency and developing environmentally friendly products that meet the requirements of the circular economy. We are also working on the development of further products created through our own research and development work, which respond to the expectations of our business partners and the markets in which we operate.”
New products and new opportunities
One example of a new product is ELITEX, a filler for rubber compounds and thermoplastic polymers. It regulates the mechanical parameters of products and makes it possible to reduce both their carbon footprint and production costs.
“We are looking at the possibility of using used tyres to produce effective acoustic barriers. Available research indicates that, given their unique physical and chemical properties, recycled rubber materials can provide significant benefits in terms of acoustic and thermal insulation, as well as vibration control. This is an interesting direction for the development of our offer, with considerable potential — perhaps not so much for roads, but above all for railways. In the case of roads, acoustic barriers already exist and their number is systematically increasing. In the case of noise caused by trains, however, there is still a great deal to be done,” explained Jasiewicz.
According to the authors of the study “Acoustic Analysis of Sound-Absorbing Materials Using Rubber from Car Recycling”, published last year, the acoustic potential of granulate results from its porous structure and the possibility of adjusting its fraction, thickness and density. Equally importantly, recycled rubber is a sustainable alternative to traditional materials such as mineral wool, while its additional advantage is high resistance to moisture, chemicals and similar factors. This feature broadens the potential applications of granulate, particularly in industrial environments.
Grupa Recykl is the largest entity in Central and Eastern Europe in the market for managing used tyres through collection, recovery and recycling. It has been operating since 2004 and currently has three modern production plants with processing capacity of 150,000 tonnes of tyres. The company has a unique nationwide tyre collection network in Poland, consisting of several thousand collection points. Grupa Recykl produces, among other things, clean rubber granulates, alternative fuels, steel cord, rubber powder, SMAPOL and ELITEX, and provides recycling and recovery services, product fee settlement and tyre collection services on request.
