Abstract Reusing granulates derived from old tire stock and other sources in high tech engineering applications is still considered a high risk option. In addition to ensuring that the granulates are correctly identified, it is important to know how the incorporation of these materials alters the intrinsic flaw size of a finished product and to see how much the strength of the interface between these materials and the virgin materials compares to the basic strength of the virgin stock and the granulates. This paper explores possible techniques that can examine both properties so that an informed evaluation of the effect of reincorporating granulates can be established in practice.