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Europe collected and reused 92 percent of scrap tires in 2017, the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) revealed in its recent report. To prepare this finding, the group studied records from EU 28, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. If to put the statistics in weight, this constituted over 1.95 million metric tons of waste tires that have undergone recycling, the ETRMA said. The main products of recycling and recovery were rubber, steel and partly textile. Scrap tires were also used for civil engineering purposes and as fuel in cement kilns.

Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) and Swedish oil company Nynas AB are launching a joint research project with Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) to develop a process for refining pyrolysis oil recovered from end-of-life tires. As reported by Enviro, refining process will allow the oil to be used in more than fuel, which both increases the value of the recovered oil and reduces the environmental impact. “This project seeks to increase the economic and environmental profitability of both tire pyrolysis and tire recycling in general, and to promote the sustainable conversion of refineries for base oil production,” says Linda Sandström, the project manager at RISE ETC.

An Italian product designer Paolo Gentile has embraced the not-so-common application for recycled scrap tires recently. He decided to create skateboards that contain rubber obtained from waste tires. Gentile, who is a recent graduate of Milan-based Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, branded his sustainable skateboard business ‘Frammento’.

Tire producer Continental A.G will start applying recovered carbon black (rCB) obtained via tire pyrolysis method and produced by German Pyrolyx A.G. after two companies have reached a five-year deal. According to the contract, Pyrolyx will be supplying some 10,000 metric tons of rCB annually to Continental’s facilities in numerous countries. This will help Pyrolyx to increase its sales and grow in North America and eastern Europe as additional plants will be commissioned as part of the agreement.

A US producer and seller of agricultural matting LRP Solutions (Linear Rubber Products) from Wisconsin is now owned by the recycled rubber compounds giant DRI Rubber. Starting November 1, all businesses functioning under LRP Solutions will be integrated into DRI RUBBER’s USA Division in Ohio. The company’s move to buy LRP Solutions will result in sustainability advancement as the two brands will combine their expertise and innovative techniques boosting the quality of the rubber matting products, according to DRI RUBBER’s official website.

Seven California-based businesses have received over $2 million from California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to fund development of products made out of 1.8 million recycled tires. Shingles, traffic cones, tiles and many other goods will be produced out of the scrap tires. CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline commented on the grant award saying that this move will not only create valuable products but will also support markets for recycled merchandise and promote sustainability.

Tire Recycling Forum – a major event dedicated to problems of tire recycling and pyrolysis – will be held on June 10-11, 2020 as part of The Tire Cologne. The event is organized by Ewan Scott – chief editor of Tyre and Rubber Recycling magazine. Last events proved to be great success and this time it is scaling up – six giants of the tire industry will take part in the Tire Cologne in Germany, Koelnmesse has recently confirmed. Tire producers such as Hankook, Nexen and other prominent industry players will also attend the event, which will host various conferences and seminars.

Kal Tire – a Canadian tire manufacturing company – has certified its carbon calculator capable of determining carbon and fuel emissions that retreaded tires managed to prevent. Moreover, Kal Tire also announced that it is set to launch Maple Program that can estimate damage caused to the environment by a customer. The Maple Program relies on Kal Tire’s new carbon calculator’s data when it provides a customer with one to five stars as it estimates the proportion of their fleet running retreads instead of new tires.

This September, Robert Weibold attended the First International Cooperation Summit on Tire and Rubber Recycling in Kunshan, China, on 16 and 17 September 2019. The event gathered industry participants from all over China, as well as from the European Union, the United States and other countries. Proclaimed by Zhu Jun, the president of China’s Tire Recycling Association (CTRA), the motto of the summit was “Environment first, Resources second; no mercy to polluting technologies”. As he and many other speakers asserted, China had gone a huge transformation in the tire recycling industry over the last 10 years.