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Spainish tire recycling authority Signus is reducing tire recycling fee by 3,55 percent since January this year – the decision was made during the budget approval by the Board of Directors for the new financial year. Therefore, the fee for a passenger vehicle tire will become € 1.24 instead of € 1.28, and the recycling fee for a truck tire changes to € 9,20 from € 9,57.

The scope of application of recycled tire rubber continues expanding all around the world, and Spain aims to catch up with the trend. Spain’s province of Granada has come up with the first is Spain innovative railway track system relying on recycled tire rubber. Now, recycled tire rubber will be used in subways to reduce noise produced by train tracks. The noise reduction is possible thanks to special technology made with a mixture of rubber from old tires and polyurethane resin, which ensures elastic properties of railroad tracks.

SIGNUS’s project created in partnership with Segurvital – as well as initiatives by Aigües de Mataró, Heineken, Circoolar, Unidad Editorial - Expansión, and Universidad Francisco de Vitoria – has won in various categories in the 4th BASF Circular Economy Awards which took place in Madrid on November 10. As the SME category winner, SIGNUS highlights its involvement in the project developed with the company Segurvital, which has approved a protection system for motorcyclists that incorporates rubber rollers from tires and demonstrated outstanding effectiveness in tests.

SIGNUS Ecovalor – a Spanish end-of-life tire managaement authority – reports that the American tire manufacturer, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd, joins the organization with the aim of guaranteeing the correct environmental management of the tires they put on the market, when those are at the end of their useful life.

Spain has taken a step to get rid of scrap tires from beaches as part of the Libera Project. The measure united well-known brands and corporations such as Pirelli Tires, Michelin, Goodyear and others; they joined Signus – Spanish scrap tire management authority – and the Network of Marine Rangers to advance the program labeled “1 Square Metre by Nature”. All parties involved in the initiative sought an aim to effectively remove and manage waste tires so they could be reused.

Recycling tires into materials such as steel-free crumb rubber and fine rubber powder used to be a profitable venture; however, due to market saturation in developed economies, tire recycling companies might want to shift their focus from raw materials to potentially higher-priced consumer goods made from recycled rubber or even virgin rubber which can be replaced by tire-derived materials. The first and so far one of the most viable choices of tire recyclers would be investing in presses and molds to produce molded goods from crumb rubber or rubber powder. Another options include more complex technologies, e.g. blending recycled rubber powder with polyethylene or polypropylene to produce thermoplastic elastomers (TPE).

Recently published by Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge Order1522/2021 defines end-of-waste criteria for recycled rubber from end-of-life tires, opening up new market options for these materials.

Greater efficiency in protecting the environment, promoting the circular economy and promoting balanced and loyal relations between all operators in the sector are the main objectives of the Code of Best Practices. Adine, Cetraa, Conepa, the Spanish Recovery and Recycling Federation, Ganvam, Open, Signus and TNU signed the document that reflects the relationship between all the agents involved in the collection and management of end-of-life tires, which is entitled: "Code of Best Practices for the Management of End-of-Life Tires" . With the signing of this document, article 12.3 of Royal Decree 731/2020 is fulfilled, which includes the need to formalize a 'Voluntary Code of Best Practices for the Management of End-of-Life Tires', which promotes balanced and loyal relations among all the operators involved in this waste stream and contribute to the use of best practices in the development of these relationships.

Recently, the Tyre and Rubber Recycling magazine published an article on a Spanish study that suggests that microplastic loss from artificial turf can be limited. Every year, the Spanish tire industry manages 300,000 tons of end-of-life tires, of which about 75,000 tons are utilized as filler for artificial turf pitches.