News: Weibold Academy

Environmental and social awareness is becoming the key element of the sustainable tire industry. End-of-life tires (ELTs) are one of the most abundant as well as the most attractive waste from an economic point of view. More than 30 million tons ELTs are generated worldwide annually (WBCSD, 2019) and this waste stream is growing dynamically.

Currently rubber recycled from end-of-life tires (ELTs) was ranked 3rd among the most suitable candidate streams for which to develop further EU-wide end-of-waste (EoW) criteria in the European Commission JRC’s report. The European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ association (ETRMA) and the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) are pleased about this prioritization exercise, although they are right to wonder why there is no date on the horizon. The 3rd place (after Plastic and Textiles) is still worth a medal, nevertheless. Considering the enormous potential of chemical recycling (pyrolysis) of ELTs, the (very) few missing points could have been made up (author's opinion) and a time horizon might be foreseeable.

Carbon pricing is a policy tool that governments can use as part of their broader climate strategy. A price is placed on greenhouse gas emissions, which creates a financial incentive to reduce those emissions or enhance removals. By incorporating climate change costs into economic decision-making, carbon pricing can help encourage changes in production, consumption, and investment patterns, thereby underpinning low-carbon growth.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is a legally autonomous, independent EU authority which, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 (REACH), regulates the technical, scientific, and administrative aspects of registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals. It is based in Helsinki, Finland, and ensures the registration, evaluation, authorization, and restriction of chemicals in a uniform procedure within the European Union. ECHA started its work in 2007.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is a legally autonomous, independent EU authority which, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 (REACH), regulates the technical, scientific, and administrative aspects of registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals.

Today, more than 80 percent of the carbon backbone that most chemicals are made of is still derived from fossil raw materials. This means that neither the basic chemicals, which are made from petroleum feedstocks, nor the products made from them are sustainable. The load limits, such as climate change, ocean acidification and integrity of the biosphere, are far exceeded by most chemicals. Some chemicals even exceed Earth's exposure limits by more than 100 times. This is the conclusion reached by the University (ETH) in Zurich in a recent study published in the expert journal Green Chemistry (2021, 23, 9881) in which the most produced 490 chemicals have been analysed through the lens of seven planetary boundaries representing critical biophysical limits that should never be exceeded.

The European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA) is hosting the three day event that will take place from Wednesday through to Friday 23 - 25 March 2022 at the NH Collection Hotel, Grand Sablon, Brussels. The Conference is the culmination of a year-long series of ETRA-led and supported activities and events that focused on market development and expansion for a broad array of recycled tyre materials, products and applications.

Modern chemical tire recycling (pyrolysis) plants produce environmentally friendly chemical raw materials, and thus they support the overarching and specifically specified goals of the EU Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, they can make a significant contribution to reducing GHG emissions in the manufacture of tires.

The International Organization for Standardization (2008, 2013) defines chemical recycling as a production of new raw materials by changing the chemical structure of polymers (e.g., plastic, rubber) through depolymerization, excluding energy recovery and incineration. Whereby depolymerisation is understood as a reversion of a polymer to its monomer(s) or to a polymer of lower relative molecular mass. This irreversible chemical decomposition (depolymerization) in pyrolysis processes is caused solely by a rise in temperature in an inert or oxygen free environment (UIPAC, 2021).