News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

U.S. Rubber Recycling Inc., an American-based tire recycling business that converts end-of-life truck tires into rubber flooring and sound-reducing panels, reports that it boosted its sales by 40% in 2020 – during the global pandemic of Covid-19. The company plans to hire another 20 workers this year and is looking for a bigger manufacturing space of 100,000 to 150,000 square feet. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Rubber Recycling Inc.) Orange County Register reports that U.S. Rubber Recycling CEO, Jeff Baldassari, attributes the company’s 2020 sales increase to a few factors: “People changed their buying behavior in 2020 because of the virus,” he says. “They weren’t going to stores as much, but online sales went up. We’ve had a longtime partnership with Rubber Flooring, which sells rubber mats and flooring, and their sales exploded because of online buying.”

International Mining (IM) magazine reports that MMG’s Dugald River underground zinc mine Cloncurry in Queensland, Australia is tackling how to recycle end-of-life tires. According to the magazine, the mine annually generates about 920 end-f-life tires from technical vehicles and trucks. The Council of Australian Governments decided to ban used and end-of-life tire exports from December 2021, and the country is now facing a growing tire stockpile problem. According to IM, Dugald River and its mining contractor Barminco have investigated alternative tire disposal, supporting a joint venture – REVYRE – program with Energy Estate and InfraCo. Reportedly, a proposed recycling process breaks down and repurposes end-of-life tires into a high value polymer product fit for tire manufacturing and clean high tensile scrap steel. REVYRE is a low emission rubber polymer recovery and re-processing business for end-of-life rubber products including end-of-life tires, conveyor belts and like products. It utilizes award winning, recently commercialized technologies in its two-step recycling process and is the only available genuine industry solution for the re-use of rubber in the circular economy.

MOL and Tatneft, one of the largest oil and gas companies in Russia, have solemnly launched a joint project for a rubber bitumen plant in the Republic of Tatarstan. According to MOL, the project partly involves end-of-life recycling. The companies have also agreed to establish a joint venture that, besides manufacturing and selling rubber bitumen, will also be authorized to market MOL's technology license in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The investment is partly financed by the HEPA Hungarian Export Promotion Agency tender funding.

In its press release from July 12, 2021, Tyre Recovery Association – the British end-of-life tire management authority – reports that a number of factors have pushed up the cost of end-of-life tire collection over the past two years but what the industry tends to overlook is the seemingly relentless increase in the average weight of our passenger car tires. TRA says that “the trend to ultra-low profile (ULP) tires coupled with the popularity of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) with larger diameter tires has had a real impact on recycling volumes as new data from Astutus Research reveals. Recent analysis by Astutus reveals that the average weight of a car tire is now 7% more that it was just five years ago.”

One of the most colorful personalities in the tire recycling and pyrolysis world – Dr. Valerie Shulman – recently passed away after a long battle with cancer. Dr. Shulman made an enormous contribution to our industry and we are very sad for our loss. We would like to express sincere condolences to Dr. Shulman’s family and remind to our audience about how Dr. Shulman was supporting and developing our industry. As a Secretary General of the European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA) for over 30 years, for many Dr. Shulman was the face and voice of the Association. As Secretary General of ETRA, she helped defend interests of European tire recyclers in the highest offices in the European Commission, fighting for the future of the industry.

ECO Green’s recent press release says that a Colombian tire recycler Duramos selects ECO Green tire recycling equipment to install a one-of-a-kind recycling plant for OTR mining tires. One of the worldwide leaders in turnkey industrial tire recycling solutions, ECO Green Equipment, has provided tire recycling machinery to companies since 2001. ECO Green’s unique equipment allows tire recyclers to collect and recycle waste rubber from massive off-the-road (OTR) mining tires. Duramos is the most recent company to purchase ECO Green’s powerful equipment to keep these tires from piling up and creating a negative environment impact.

Weibold is welcoming pyrolysis / tire recycling technology suppliers, researchers and all other interested parties from the industry to hold webinars on our platform. Our audience comprises over 25,000 professionals from tire recycling, pyrolysis and affiliated industries, which helps you increase your business presence, attract new customers and spread a word about your business activities. Benefit from our tire recycling and pyrolysis network we have been building up over the past 22 years. Contact Agustina Martin for more information.

According to the press release of SIGNUS – a Spanish end-of-life tire management authority – from July 2021, during 2020, the organization managed 150,228 tons of end-of-life tires which it turned into new useful products for different applications. Of the total amount of tires collected, about 12% went for reuse (second-use or retreading), 35.2% were for energy recovery and the remaining 52.8% was recycled in the different tire recycling plants in Spain. Among the main uses for the material obtained from the end-of-life tires in 2020, there are 21,660 tons for the installation of about 215 football fields, 14,637 tons for the construction of approximately 2,900 playgrounds and 2,202 tons that were used to pave some 200 kilometers of highways, among others.

Fraunhofer Institute writes that until recently, end-of-life tires have been used mainly for recovering energy sources: Only small proportions of the carbon black contained in these tires are recycled, since mineral ash accounts for around 20 percent of its content. A new process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP is able to isolate almost all of this ash – allowing both the carbon black and the minerals from the ash to be reused.