News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

A recent press release by Kal Tire – Canada’s largest independent tire dealer and one of North America’s largest commercial tire dealers – tells about its first thermal conversion recycling facility set to open in Antofagasta, Chile, in 2019. The press release also elaborates on how developing government relationships was just as critical to the company as developing a viable recycling solution.

Max Craipeau, CEO of Greencore Resources in Hong Kong (a former Maxco Industries (HK) Ltd) has been given a role of Chairman of the Tyres and Rubber Committee at BIR Tyres & Rubber. Prior to starting his own business in Hong Kong, Craipeau spent more than a decade working in the recycling sector collaborating with ex-President of the BIR Non-Ferrous Metals Division Marc Natan. Since then, Craipeau has become a prominent name in the recycling and tire industries in Asia and Europe.

Even though earlier media reports stated that the EU was about to introduce a legislation prohibiting the use of artificial turf on playing surfaces, The European Commission stated that the information was misleading. The authoritative body added that it was only focusing its work on health risks posed by some microplastics and looking into developing its sustainable substitutes.

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Today, many developing countries suffer from poor waste management practices and severe environmental problems. This includes not only insufficient wastewater treatment, dangerous chemicals in soil or solid household waste, but also end-of-life tires (ELTs) which, accumulated at landfills, pose threat to human health. Whereas fraught politics is incapable of designing scrap tire management regulations and establishing collection systems, there are other practices which could help. To affect scrap tire management and recycling on local level, one should come up with solutions tailored to people’s economic behavior and habits, and look at their economic needs. This is where crowdsourcing for ELTs comes into play.

The International Tire Exhibition and Conference in Ohio (United States) will focus on bio and recycled materials and their potential to be used as substitute to virgin natural and synthetic rubber. The exhibition and conference will be held on September 24-26, 2019 in Akron, Ohio. Sheraton Suites Akron Cuyahoga Falls will serve as a venue for the event that will unite tire industry specialists and will become a great place for productive networking.

Rimini Exhibition Centre in Italy will host an expo by Ecomondo devoted to green technologies, recycling and material recovery. The organizers call the platform “the leading event in Europe” that promotes novelties in circular economy and recycling. During the event, attendees will learn about a range of issues such as material and energy recovery that can advance sustainability. A separate section of expo will be devoted to tire and rubber recycling, as well as tire pyrolysis.

Eagle International – a renowned manufacturer of tire recycling equipment – reports that its Punch Cutter has become a well-established machine for cutting OTR tires into usable segments. Eagle’s patented machine is designed to punch through the tread of an OTR tire and split it into two halves down the center of the tread. It is a more compact option for cutting tires in half within Eagle’s flagship OTR Downsizing System.

Belgium-based scrap tire management organization Recytyre published its annual report noting that last year the state collected over 86,500 tons of waste tires – this exceeds the figure of 2017 when 83,703 tons were gathered. Thus, the company managed to outperform its targets set earlier, according to Chris Lorquet, the CEO of Recytyre.