Using crushed waste rubber tires mixed with sand as a lightweight backfill material in geotechnical engineering is one of the most promising measures to deal with waste tires. In order to study the compressive characteristics of rubber sand, this paper conducted one-dimensional consolidation compression tests on transparent rubber sand to investigate the deformation mechanism of rubber sand and established a characterization model of rubber sand"s compressive characteristics. The results show that the total vertical strain of rubber sand increases with the increase of rubber content, and the plastic strain is greater than the elastic strain. Compared with pure sand, the increment of the compressive deformation of rubber sand mainly comes from the compression deformation of rubber particles themselves and the rolling rearrangement of sand particles caused by the deformation of rubber particles. Based on the compression models of pure sand and rubber, a compressive characteristic characterization model of rubber sand with different rubber content was established, and the model has good applicability. The research results can provide scientific support for the engineering application of rubber sand.