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In Kuwait, the Salmi tire stockpile is referred to as a constant source of fires and air pollution. As part of efforts to reduce and promote the end-of-life tire recycling in Kuwait, the Green Rubber Recycling company, which was established in 2013, creates a variety of products which utilize recycled tire rubber. Kuwait Times recently published an article about the Green Rubber Recycling highlighting company’s achievements. “Located in Amghara area, about 30 kilometers from Kuwait City, the tire recycling factory makes 100% recycled rubber tiling in brick or tile format for all types of locations including children’s play places, gyms, sports arenas as well as filling for gardens, farms and elsewhere,” the magazine writes.

According to the officials, the move is expected to bring down the cost of imports of carbon black for tire makers, small and medium-sized rubber goods manufacturers, while reducing the protection levels for domestic makers of carbon black such as Philips Carbon, Birla Carbon and Himadri Speciality, The Hindu Business Line reports. Yet, it remains unclear if consumers will benefit as much as they would depend on the rubber good producers passing it on to the customers, they added.

The Hindu Business Line magazine reports that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) of India has reproached the Environment Ministry over delay in a report by the committee which was set up to review imports of hazardous waste including end-of-life tires, lead and PCBs. According to the magazine, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said mere constituting a committee does not serve any purpose unless the matter is taken to a logical end. The National Green Tribunal said that even though a committee is said to have been constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) more than a year ago, no reason is given why no report has been submitted.

Business Wire recently reported that Bolder Industries (“Bolder”), a pioneer in converting end-of-life tires into sustainable industrial products such as recovered carbon black (rCB), and Continental Carbon Company (“CCC”), a leader in the development and manufacture of furnace-grade carbon blacks for the tire and rubber industry, announced on November 17 that they have entered into a co-marketing agreement to commercialize breakthrough, sustainable products for the global rubber and plastics industry.

Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) reports that its representative in the UK market, 2G BioPOWER, has been granted the equivalent of EUR 240,000 in state funding for a feasibility study that will investigate the possibilities for the large-scale introduction of Enviro’s recovery technology for end-of-life tires in the UK. According to Enviro, the objectives include investigating the possibilities for recovering oil and carbon black from domestic end-of-life tires.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) reports that the world production of natural rubber (NR) fell 8.7%, year-over-year, during Jan-Aug 2020 to 7.778 million tons. Accounting a 3.8% fall anticipated in the remaining four months of the year, the total production during the full year 2020 is anticipated at 12.901 million ton reflecting a 6.8% fall from the previous year. This revised outlook of the world supply in 2020 is 1.9 percentage points lower than the outlook reported a month ago which was 13.149 million ton by representing a 4.9% fall.

As circular economy concept and tire recycling are becoming more popular all over the world, the first issue that may arise is the need to secure the raw material, namely end-of-life tires (ELT). Normally, tire recycling companies source their feedstock from collection programs or directly from tire stockpiles. Local ELT stockpiles in developing countries eventually may have limited supplies, because if ELT regulations were not in place before, tires may have been simply landfilled or burnt.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), in line with its recent outlook, says that the natural rubber (NR) prices started recovering since the last week of April driven by the positive sentiment due to the relaxation of the COVID-19 containment measures and lockdowns, reopening of economic activities across countries, positive developments in crude oil market, and a substantial contraction in the global production of NR. The recovery is likely to continue, albeit at a slow pace and subject to a set of risk factors.

New Zealand’s North Canterbury has a huge end-of-life tire stockpile, which has been attracting public attention over the last years and grew into a big problem. Efforts to clean up the stockpile have picked up pace with two parties who are now in a competition race. Press reports that the tire stockpile has been a concern for the community for more than four years, and it was deliberately set alight in 2018. Both removal bids have Environment Canterbury (ECan) backing. New Zealand’s magazine Stuff reports that “Community-led group Accountability Action was formed in response to a lack of action by authorities and enforcement breaches by the companies responsible for the tires, Tyre Recycling Services New Zealand Ltd and 2016 Tyre Shredding Ltd.”