News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

The National Waste and Recycling Council (NWRIC) of Australia reports that there has been a public exposure of a huge tyre stockpile in Brisbane, Queensland, highlighting the shortcomings of existing government regulations and loopholes in the voluntary Tyre Stewardship Australia Scheme as to preventing potentially hazardous end-of-life tyre stockpiles. NWRIC CEO Rose Read said the stockpile was an example of how public confidence in tyre recycling schemes and payment of waste levies could be undermined.

On Spetember 10 2020, Tyre Stewardship Australia Limited proudly announced the release of the Low Traffic Crumb Rubber Road Fund (LTCRRF), aimed at encouraging the use of Crumb Rubber (CR) in low traffic asphalt roads across Australia. This fund, open to Local Councils and other eligible organisations, is to support these entities to: – Install, upgrade, or maintain low traffic roads with CR asphalt – Implement the new Victorian specifications – Progress the development of low traffic road specifications in other states and territories around Australia

The Tire and Rubber Association of Canada has recently announced the appointment of Carol Hochu as incoming President & CEO. Ms. Hochu brings a lifetime of experience and successful track record of leading Canadian associations and non-profit organizations. Most recently, she led the Canadian Plastics Industry Association as President and CEO for nearly a decade, and prior to that she served as Executive Director of the Ontario Electronic Stewardship. As an accomplished association executive, in all her past roles Ms. Hochu served as a passionate industry advocate who successfully raised industry profiles and advanced important industry issues with key stakeholders, influencers, and government; and she expertly navigates all aspects of association management, including government, member and public relations.

On September 9 2020, Ministry of Education and Research of Germany reported about its newly launched innovation forum “End-of-Life Tire Recycling”. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of the “SME Innovation Forums” funding guidelines. The aim is to initiate an interdisciplinary network from business and science in the field of innovation. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to facilitate dismantling the mountain of used tires in the country and continue to fully recycle old rubber and tires, even in a rapidly changing market.

The first seven months of 2020 has witnessed an 8.9% year-over-year (y/y) fall in the world production and a 14.0% y/y fall in world consumption of natural rubber. Based on preliminary estimates available up to July 2020 from individual countries, and anticipated figures for the rest of the year, the world production in the year 2020 is anticipated at 13.149 million tons, down 4.9% from the previous year. This is slightly lower than the outlook for 2020 reported in July 2020 which was 13.195 million tons, down 4.5% from the previous year. The outlook for world consumption in 2020 is scaled down to 12.544 million tons or down 8.9 % from the previous year. The consumption outlook for 2020 as reported in July 2020 was 12.754 million tons, down 7.3% from the previous year.

To make end-of-life tire collection easier when the volumes of tires do not require the use of a large trailer, the end-of-life tire management sector in France is now equipped with small containers – eAZyBox system. The measure was introduced by Aliapur – French waste tire management company – and allows to significantly decrease manual labor when collecting tires. Aliapur says that during the last year the first 50 units have been delivered to collectors in the end-of-life tire management sector.

The Municipality of Benghazi announced recently that its recycling plant for end-of-life tires went into operation. The Municipality says the plant will use end-of-life tires scattered and stockpiles throughout the municipality and recycle them to convert them from waste and end-of-life material into added value products that contribute to the national economy.

Swedish tire pyrolysis equipment manufacturer and operator – Scandinavian Enviro Systems – reports about market expectations that can significantly influence the company’s profitability. Below, we cite the company’s recent press release describing the matter. Over the past year, Scandinavian Enviro Systems AB (publ, “Enviro”) has noticed a dramatic increase in interest in the oil — known as pyrolysis oil — that the company can extract from end-of-life tires using its proprietary technology. The oil has a high bio content due to the natural rubber in tires, and in the company’s opinion is therefore of great interest to many players in the market because it could replace fossil-based alternatives.

In its recent press release, Michelin says that the BlackCycle project is officially funded by the EU in May 2020. The BlackCycle project involves 13 organizations in a unique European public-private partnership that will demonstrate the technical, environmental, and economic viability of world-first circular processes. The consortium will develop specific solutions to produce sustainable raw materials for tires: ELT collection and feedstock selection, pyrolysis optimization, oil refining and valorization, furnace process optimization, and sustainable tire performance assessment. Michelin says that as early as 5-6 years after the project, close to 1 out of every 2 European ELTs will be incorporated into the only virtuous cycle of this magnitude amongst all industrial sectors for the recovery of end-of-life products.