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According to ETRMA, the green and digital transitions combined with the focus on competitiveness and resilience play a key role in the identified pathway for recovery published by ETRMA on 12 May 2020, when the sector asked to prioritize the initiatives to achieve climate neutrality and digital transition, and requested a supportive and reasonable timing to the overall changing regulatory framework. ETRMA welcomes the coherent approach between this Communication, the Green Deal and the EU COVID-19 recovery plan.

Devulcanization is a method of potentially “upgrading” end-of-life tire rubber. Devulcanized rubber is a higher valued form of end-of-life rubber, since devulcanized material can be partly revulcanized and partially replace virgin rubber in specific compounds and applications, including tires. Currently, only a small number of devulcanization systems are operating on industrial scale. These are primarily small-capacity systems, which are devulcanizing rubber production rejects (NR, SBR, NBR, EPDM, Butyl, etc.) or rubber recovered from waste tires. There are different types of devulcanization technologies on the market; among them are: are chemical, purely mechanical, machinal with supercritical CO2, chemical/mechanical, microwave, ultrasonic and organic

Pyrolysis, an advanced chemical recycling route for End-of-Life Tires (ELT), is experiencing a boom in the last few years. As seen objectively, there is no one best design and/or process mode. Different options can be considered depending on the local circumstances and/or targeted product yields and qualities. While only a small portion of global ELT arisings (31 million tons per year) are currently finding their way to thermochemical decomposition, recent developments are showing strong signs of promising opportunities.

In the end of this article we make an estimation of a possible annual market size of recovered carbon black, modestly assuming virgin carbon black substitution rate at 20%. Hint: numbers suggest that recovered carbon black production is a profitable business rich in opportunities. Traditionally Carbon Black (CB) has been used as both a reinforcing agent and filler in automobile tires. Along with better understanding of CB’s unique properties as a material, it is presently used in a much wider range of applications across a large variety of products – car tires, conveyor belts, inks, plastic pipes, rubber mats, shoe soles and so forth. Virgin CB contains only trace amounts of impurities and carbon content is very close to 100%.

On September 6, 2021, Continental reported it is unveiling its innovative Conti GreenConcept tire concept at this year’s IAA MOBILITY. This conceptual study by the premium tire manufacturer leverages both current and emerging technological approaches to the engineering of sustainable tires for passenger cars, as yet another example of Continental’s wide-ranging activities in pursuit of sustainability. The goal of Continental’s integrative and sustainable concept: minimizing resource consumption across every link in the tire’s value chain. As such, the study addressed everything from the sourcing and procurement of raw materials on to the various stages of production and even on up to ways of extending the tire’s service life. Continental’s development engineers and materials experts rose to the occasion and found novel solutions to each of these three challenges. The result: a tire that consists of a particularly high percentage of traceable, renewable, and recycled materials, has an innovative, lightweight design that conserves valuable resources, and extended service life thanks to a renewable tread.

Regardless of meandering political environmental protection trends, most Western companies today are embracing Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) as a mandate that is integral to their corporate strategy and forms part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program. The automobile industry and its subset, the tire industry, is no exception. Consumer awareness represents pressure on corporate governance to continuously improve the environmental footprint throughout the life cycle of their products. Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are one way of objectively quantifying and qualifying the effect that material and energy flows of a given product have on our environment, our health, our economies, and the way we live. LCAs also help design the products we and our customers manufacture, compare them to competitive solutions, and enhance their perception in the market. If performed properly, the investments that LCAs require can therefore ultimately translate into improved profit margins. This article examines the difficulties we encounter and gains we can realize when performing an LCA on an End Of Life Tire (ELT) derived product.