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British Columbia's ocean cleanup workers, as they’re deconstructing what they are calling "tire island", are trying to determine how more than 2,000 end-of-life tires ended up on a remote Nelson Island (the Sunshine Coast of Canada) and why they were kept there for decades. They were discovered by an environmental project that was looking for areas that needed to be cleaned up, yet no one knows how they got to the island. The Ocean Legacy Foundation with Let's Talk Trash, Tire Stewardship BC, and Liberty Tire Recycling joined together to remove the tires from the island.

Faced with millions of end-of-life tyres in landfill or openly dumped, the Gulf States are developing individual strategies to deal with the waste stream including a growing interest in pyrolysis… The meeting was kicked off by Committee Chairman Max Craipeau of Greencore Resources in China who wondered if “there’s ever been a better time” for tyre recycling. Investors were taking a much closer interest in the sector, especially because of the increasing concern from customers for greater sustainability. “Circularity is finally a reality for the tyre and rubber industry,” he said, referring to chemical recycling such as pyrolysis. “We have always been the poor relative in the recycling industry – because for a long time there was no circularity, as with metals which can be recycled infinitely. “Materials that weren’t necessarily sustainable from a chemical recycling point of view are becoming more and more sustainable thanks to growing demand.”

TNU (Tratamiento Neumáticos Usados) – a Spanish EPR agency for end-of-life tires – reports it will be present in the new edition of Ecofira with its traveling exhibition on tire recycling “Recicla y Sonríe" ("Recycle and Smile"). The exhibition addresses the social, economic and environmental importance of the treatment and recycling of end-of-life tires. Used tires collected annually by TNU are claimed to 100% recycled. When recycled, the components of end-of-life tires: rubber, steel and textile fiber, become materials and energy resources.

Pyrum Innovations AG (Pyrum), a pioneer in the sustainable recycling of end-of-life tyres (ELT) based on its patented pyrolysis technology, has for the first time obtained a determination of the CO2 savings of its pyrolysis process as part of a "Life Cycle Assessment" (LCA, eco balance) by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology. The results once again demonstrate the unique and sustainable efficiency of the Pyrum technology. Compared to the use of fossil raw materials, Pyrum’s process saves 747 kg CO2 equivalent per tonne of ELT; if the use of the waste heat produced is included, as Pyrum is already applying, even 965 kg CO2 equivalent are saved per tonne of ELT.

Every year, approximately 150 million tires are processed for recycling in Europe. This rubber from recycled tires has several useful applications, including being a crucial component of the artificial turf used in playgrounds, football fields, and road construction. The European Recycling Industries Federation (EuRIC), the Spanish Federation for Recovery and Recycling (FER), and the Collective Management System for End-of-Life Tyres in Spain (SIGNUS) have all issued statements warning of the significant consequences of the European Commission's proposal to ban the use of rubber crumb, a byproduct of tyres that have reached the end of their useful lives, on artificial turf fields without taking into account alternative, equally effective policies with less negative environmental effects.

Recently, SIGNUS – a Spanish end-of-life tire management authority – has published its Activity Report for the 2021 financial year, where the company highlighted that 200,286 tonnes of ELTs were converted into new useful products for different applications. Of the total collected, 11.4% was used to prepare it for reuse (second-use or retreaded tires), 36.4% was used for energy recovery and the remaining 52.3% was recycled at the different plants. of transformation existing in Spain, in products that were destined to different applications.

The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) strongly rejects an EU proposal that will indirectly ban materials from tyres as part of its effort to eradicate microplastics. Each year around 150 million tyres are processed for recycling annually – that’s one tyre for every three EU citizens. This rubber from recycled tyres has a wide range of everyday benefits that may not always be obvious – including essential materials for artificial football pitches, children’s playgrounds, and filling potholes.

Hernán Di Leo, ELT manager at Prometeon, is quoted in a article in Argentina's Clarin Economica as saying, "I have been in charge of recycling the tires we sell for six months. I initially believed it would be a task, but I became deeply immersed and found a wonderful activity." Prometeon is Argentina's largest distribution network, with over 1,100 people and about 120 points of sale. Although it must be made clear that the procedure only accepts high-quality tires, "the reuse of tires is a crucial to the sustainability of the business," adds Di Leo. And he adds that "a tyre requires at least 250 years to biodegrade," according to estimates. Other supplementary possibilities exist, such as tyre repair through retreading techniques. But even after retreading, a tire's usable life eventually expires. Because of this, Prometeon established its ELT Program, which entails repurposing recycled tire parts into things like playground equipment for kids, artificial turf for soccer fields, and energy sources for businesses in the cement sector.

When it comes to recycling end-of-life tires into new products, the processors and manufacturers are the heart of the tire recycling industry in British Columbia. After end-of-life tires collected, they are processed into crumb rubber and then sent to manufacturers to turn those broken-down rubber materials into new products like playground surfaces, athletic tracks, garden mulch, and a product that is important in the farming industry, but perhaps less-known to the public–horse mats.