India’s tyre recycling industry stands at a critical juncture. Tyre pyrolysis oil (TPO) and recovered carbon black (rCB) have struggled to gain wider industrial acceptance because of inconsistent quality, limited standardisation and uncertainty over their commercial classification. NITI Aayog’s recommendations to establish quality standards for these materials could help overcome these barriers, enabling the sector to move beyond waste processing towards higher-value circular manufacturing. 

However, standardisation alone will not deliver this transformation. Recyclers will need affordable technology upgrades and reliable feedstock, while industrial consumers must be confident that recycled materials meet their technical requirements consistently. 

Chetan Joshi, president of global affairs and imports at the Tyre & Rubber Recycling Association of India (TRRAI), believes the proposed standards should be implemented as a priority. 

“For years, tyre recycling has been treated primarily as a waste-disposal activity rather than as a source of valuable secondary raw materials. Proper standards can change this by establishing TPO and rCB as reliable industrial products,” he says. 

Joshi stresses that the standards must be practical, application-specific and aligned with market requirements. For rCB, specifications should address ash content, particle characteristics, surface area and reinforcement performance. For TPO, they should cover sulphur, viscosity, calorific value, flash point and moisture. 

The government should establish a clear framework in consultation with recyclers, tyre manufacturers, testing institutions and industrial consumers, supported by accredited laboratories and a defined certification pathway. 

“Standards must improve quality without becoming an unnecessary compliance burden. Their purpose should be to enable investment, market acceptance and technological advancement,” Joshi says. 

Building confidence among industrial buyers 

The success of the proposed standards will depend on whether they translate into greater demand. Industrial consumers need assurance that TPO and rCB offer consistent quality, reliable performance and competitive pricing. 

TPO has potential applications as an alternative industrial fuel in cement kilns, furnaces and boilers, subject to applicable fuel specifications and environmental requirements. Meanwhile, rCB could replace a proportion of virgin carbon black in selected tyre, rubber and plastics applications, depending on its quality and performance. 

Joshi calls for structured industrial trials involving tyre manufacturers, steel plants, cement companies, refineries and other potential users. Independent testing and certification should be strengthened, with end users involved in defining application-specific grades. 

“This will ensure that the standards reflect actual industrial requirements rather than only laboratory specifications,” he says. 

Vishesh Agarwal, chief executive officer of Finster Carbon Private Limited and Royal Carbon Black Private Limited, also sees standardisation as a turning point. 

“For years, the biggest handicap facing tyre recycling in India has not been technology — it has been the absence of formal product identity,” he says. 

Agarwal argues that TPO and rCB have often been traded as unclassified, unstandardised materials, leaving compliant producers competing against operators without equivalent quality assurance. 

“Quality standards change that fundamentally. When NITI Aayog, BIS, CPCB and MoEFCC converge on defined specifications, TPO stops being ‘waste oil’ and becomes a regulated industrial fuel, and rCB stops being ‘char’ and becomes a certified raw material that can substitute virgin carbon black,” he says. 

National specifications would give buyers objective benchmarks rather than requiring them to rely solely on supplier-specific laboratory reports. For rCB, alignment with international technical developments could also help manufacturers qualify recycled material for commercial compounds. 

EPR, taxation and traceability 

Both experts stress that regulatory and fiscal reforms must complement the proposed standards. 

For Joshi, the priority is redesigning the extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework to reward verified material recovery and genuine circular applications rather than simply the quantity of tyres processed. 

“EPR benefits should not be based merely on the quantity of tyres processed,” he says. Incentives, he argues, should reflect product quality, traceability, verified recovery and the replacement of virgin raw materials. 

He believes rCB, reclaim rubber, devulcanised rubber, micronised rubber powder and crumb rubber-modified bitumen should receive explicit recognition under the EPR system. This could encourage investment in technologies that deliver higher-value materials and connect recycling more closely with manufacturing. 

Agarwal identifies dedicated Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN) codes as a particularly important reform. He says TPO currently moves under a generic petroleum-product classification, creating uncertainty and potential classification disputes. 

A dedicated code could give the product clearer commercial identity, improve trade data and reduce interpretational disputes. It could also support GST rationalisation. 

“Recycled products substituting virgin imports deserve a rate structure that rewards, not penalises, circularity,” Agarwal says. 

Both experts also support product traceability. A transparent digital system linking scrap tyres to recovered products and their eventual use could improve oversight and strengthen the credibility of EPR claims. However, Joshi cautions that traceability requirements must remain simple and auditable, without imposing disproportionate costs on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). 

The cost of compliance 

Implementation will require investment, particularly among smaller recyclers. Many existing pyrolysis units were designed primarily to recover oil and char. Producing higher-quality TPO and rCB may require improved process controls, refining, filtration, milling, classification and quality assurance. 

Agarwal highlights the difficulty of maintaining consistent quality across batches, which requires controlled heating profiles, appropriate condensation systems and laboratory facilities. 

He cites more than 600 recycling units in India, with installed capacity exceeding 50 lakh tonnes per annum against domestic scrap tyre arisings of approximately 12 lakh tonnes. These figures underline the importance of developing viable markets while helping compliant operators upgrade. 

“The sector needs support in three forms: reasonable transition timelines for existing consented units rather than overnight enforcement; access to affordable finance for quality-upgrade capex; and shared or subsidised testing infrastructure,” Agarwal says. 

“Standards should organise the industry, not shrink it.” 

Joshi similarly advocates technology-upgradation subsidies, affordable financing, common testing facilities and technical assistance for MSMEs. Environmental compliance, he emphasises, must remain non-negotiable, with consistent enforcement across operators. 

Feedstock availability is another concern. Advanced recycling facilities require reliable volumes of suitable scrap tyres to justify investment. Joshi proposes a transparent, capacity-linked approval mechanism for authorised recyclers to access imported processed or shredded tyre material, subject to applicable regulations and environmental safeguards. 

Moving up the value chain 

Over the next five years, the proposed standards could influence investment and accelerate the shift from low-value fuel recovery towards higher-value circular applications. 

Agarwal expects clearer product specifications and classification to encourage investment in continuous pyrolysis plants, rCB upgrading facilities and downstream manufacturing. 

“Standards enable the climb up the value ladder: rCB replacing virgin carbon black in tyres and plastics, TPO refined towards higher-grade applications, and char moving into higher-value uses rather than co-processing alone,” he says. 

Joshi shares this ambition, arguing that circularity should be measured by how effectively recovered materials re-enter manufacturing rather than simply by the volume of waste processed. 

“If these three priorities are implemented decisively, India can achieve a major transformation within the next five years,” he says, referring to clear quality standards, EPR and taxation reforms, and technology support coupled with assured feedstock access. 

Certified recycled materials could reduce dependence on virgin raw materials and create export opportunities, provided Indian producers demonstrate consistent quality and meet the requirements of target markets. 

For Joshi, the ambition is clear: “India has the potential to become a global supplier of certified recycled rubber materials and recovered carbon black.” 

NITI Aayog has provided an important policy direction. The next step is to translate its recommendations into clear specifications, credible certification and coordinated implementation. If supported by the right policy framework, India’s tyre recycling industry could evolve from a fragmented waste-processing sector into a recognised supplier of circular industrial raw materials.