News: Tire Recycling & Pyrolysis

According to the latest TRA’s press release, at its Annual General Meeting held on 13th September 2023 the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) unanimously elected Bill Clarke of DME Tyres to be its new President for the next two years. Bill will succeed Tim Stott of Murfitts Industries who is stepping down. DME Tyres were early supporters of the TRA having joined very soon after its formation two decades ago. Commenting on his new role, Bill expressed his warm appreciation to the membership for the confidence they had showed him.

Tire Industry Project (TIP) and Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) of India with the support of Deloitte are organizing a one-day Workshop on “End-of-life Tire (ELT) Management in India” taking place on Thursday, 21st September 2023 at Hotel ITC Maurya in New Delhi. Franklin Raj, the pyrolysis business analyst, and Yogesh Gaikwad, technical consultant for carbon black, will participate in the event on behalf of Weibold’s team.

On September 20 - 22, 2023, Agustina Martin from Weibold will attend the 3rd Latin American Tire Recycling Conference in Lima, Peru, also known as “Jornadas – Reciclaje”. As the key account manager for Central & South America at Weibold, Agustina supports the company in pre-feasibility studies, market researches and technology evaluations for tire recycling and pyrolysis projects.

Pyrum Innovations AG (Pyrum) has already started preliminary discussions with Thermo Lysi SA for the development of a new plant for the recycling of used tires in Greece. Pyrum has agreed to carry out all the planning necessary to obtain the building permits required under Greek law for the new facility, to be built approximately 140 km north of Athens. The facility will have a capacity of 20,000 tons of end-of-life tires per year and will therefore be able to cover almost half of the total amount of end-of-life tires in Greece – the country generates around 45,000 tons of waste tires annually. The new plant will help sustainably recycle these used tires and recover valuable resources.

In Gaza, where the Israeli blockade has created significant challenges, a 27-year-old Palestinian named Madian Helles has initiated a car tire recycling project to address environmental concerns. In Gaza, the disposal of car tires is problematic due to their slow decomposition and the absence of recycling initiatives. Inspired to find a solution to these environmental issues, Helles launched his project. The tire recycling process involves several stages. Helles collects used tires using mobile carts and uses a machine he assembled to cut, slice, chop, grind, and sort the tires to remove impurities, threads, and fibers.

Continental continues to step up its activities to ensure a circular economy. Recently, the tire manufacturer added recovered carbon black (rCB) to its newly produced Super Elastic solid tires at its tire plant in Korbach, Germany, thus reducing the use of fossil raw materials and CO2 emissions. Solid tires such as Continental’s SC20+ already contain around 60 percent renewable and recycled materials thanks to their high natural rubber content. By 2050 at the latest, Continental aims to use 100 percent sustainable materials in its tire products.

According to a media platform Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a Pennsylvania-based bitcoin mine, located at a waste coal power plant, plans to incorporate end-of-life tires as a new fuel source. Stronghold Digital Mining, the mining company, states it is an "environmentally beneficial" bitcoin miner. However, during a recent press conference, environmental advocates raised concerns about air quality violations at the facility, known as Panther Creek, since its acquisition by Stronghold in 2021. Tire waste is a significant problem in the United States, with around 300 million end-of-life tires generated annually. Burning them is considered better than landfill disposal, but it's not as sustainable as recycling.

In Germany, nearly 500,000 tons of end-of-life (EOL) tires accumulate each year, with only a small portion being recycled into new tires. A digital tool known as the Configurator for the Circular Economy (ConCirMy) has been developed to provide environmental information to stakeholders in the tire supply chain. This tool aims to help consumers, designers, and recyclers make informed decisions regarding tire purchases by considering their environmental performance. The ConCirMy project aims to optimize tires for the circular economy without compromising quality.

Wastefront AS has been granted an environmental permit for their flagship site at the Port of Sunderland. The decision was made Thursday 31 August 2023 by the Environment Agency and clears the way for the next stage in the process, as Wastefront works toward having the site fully operational by 2026. Commenting on the news, Wastefront CEO Vianney Vales said: “Wastefront’s work is timely and urgent; our Blueprint will solve the disposal of an estimated 31 million metric tonnes of end-of-life tires annually, which is currently a concerningly dense source of both emissions and waste.