What are rubber granule tiles and rubber granule mats?

Rubber granule tiles and rubber granule mats are elastic floor coverings composed mainly of bound rubber granules from end-of-life tyres. ELT stands for end-of-life tyres, which are shredded and ground into rubber granules. The rubber content of these tyres consists mainly of SBR, or styrene-butadiene rubber, and NR, or natural rubber.

These rubber granules are processed with a binder under pressure in presses. The binder may be colourless or coloured, and polyurethane is normally used, creating PU-bound rubber granules.

Some rubber granule tiles and mats consist entirely of PU-bound ELT rubber granules, while others also have a top layer of EPDM granules. This EPDM layer forms the wearing layer. EPDM stands for ethylene-propylene-diene rubber, a modern synthetic rubber with particularly high UV resistance that is generally coloured throughout.