News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

Schwalbe has started a pilot project to create an innovative bicycle tire recycling technology in conjunction with Pyrum Innovations AG and the Technische Hochschule Köln - University of Applied Sciences.

Episode 29 of the Tyre Recycling Podcast features a returning guest Tony Wibbeler, the CEO and Founder of Bolder Industries – a renowned tire pyrolysis operator and recovered carbon black producer – who gives a thorough update on the activities of the company in the last 12 months. In the interview, Wibbeler speaks about investments by Bolder Industries in Maryville and at the former Pyrolyx plant.

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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.

Loading a tyre baler is a physically demanding task, requiring the operator to bend down and pick up over 100 tyres per bale. Throughout the day this can quickly become tiring and lead to sore backs, and staff downtime. Operators can also be slowed down by the need to move about in search for tyres.

EFG Polymers, a resource recovery company based in Arizona, United States, announced this December an initiative to redefine what constitutes “end-of-life” (EOL) for tires and what constitutes rubber waste. The materials incorporated in tires when removed from service retain almost all of the properties existing when the tires were manufactured, indeed it is the retention of these properties of indestructibility that create the resource recovery challenge. The current EOL processes almost universally destroy those valuable properties rather than recover the resources. EFG technologies engineer new elastomeric materials with high value applications and dramatically extend the life of the resources while eliminating waste.

The World Economic Forum recently published an article about a Kuwaiti company EPSCO, who is committed to solve the country’s end-of-life tire stockpiling problem. Before EPSCO launched its first tire recycling plant in 2020, Weibold supported the company with the market research for recycled tire-derived products. According to the World Economic Forum, EPSCO Global General Trading has a plant that recycles used tires and turns them into consumer goods. The facility has the capacity to recycle up to 3 million tires per year. This operation is crucial in addressing Kuwait's trash problem, which has been dubbed the "tire graveyard."

Tyre Stewardship Australia – the end-of-life tire management authority in Australia – writes that the tire manufacturing industry is now taking another step towards assuring sustainable natural rubber. According to its recent social media feed, members of the multi-stakeholder Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) took an important step towards ensuring the production, processing and consumption of natural rubber does not cause social or environmental harm.

Birla Carbon has announced the closing of a US$750 million Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL) with a syndicate of more than 15 institutions on December 17, 2021. The loan funds would be utilized to refinance Birla Carbon's current debts. The ANZ Group is the deal's only sustainability coordinator. The statement is especially significant because Birla Carbon previously announced the introduction of the Continua brand of Sustainable Carbonaceous Materials (SCM) in 2021, as well as its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Since 2013, Birla Carbon has published an annual Sustainability Report including Key Performance Indicators (KPI).