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Tyre recycling markets
Valerie
L. Shulman, Ph.D., Secretary General
ETRA
Full presentation
Although post-consumer tyres form one
of the smallest of EU waste streams,
representing only a nominal fraction of
the annual total of over a
billion-and-a-half tonnes, they have
become a prime example of how waste can
be trans-formed into viable, sought
after materials. More than one-third of
the 3.250.000 tonnes of post-consumer
tyres that are permanently removed from
passenger cars, trucks and utility
vehicles each year in the 27 Member
State of the EU, are recycled into a
range of sustainable and environmentally
sound products.
Today, recycled tyre materials are
sought by more than fifty different
industries because of their physical and
chemical properties, durability, high
performance, cost-effectiveness and
ready availability. While the recycling
sectors generally provide raw materials
to produce the same product as the
original, that is not the case with
tyres. Tyre manufacturers have increased
their use to approximately 5%, primarily
as fillers and other low-value added
substitutes. The majority of recycled
tyre materials are used in a broad array
of civil engineering and construction
applications or consumer and industrial
products unrelated to the automotive
industries. Nevertheless, tyre recycling
has expanded almost 700% during the past
18 years – because tyre recycling makes
sense commercially as well as
environmentally.
Today, the two largest markets for
recycled tyre materials are the
construction industries (+36%) and the
sport surfaces industries (+35%).
Industrial and consumer products are not
far behind.
Construction applications include civil
engineering, road and non-road
construction. Generally, civil
engineering and construction
applications use large materials, such
as whole treated tyres, cuts, shred and
chips to replace quarried aggregates,
crushed stone or gravel. However, as
road applications have become more
prevalent, increasing quan-tities of the
smaller sized granulate is being used as
well, primarily in rubberised asphalt,
modified bitumen, road furniture,
curbing, ramps, surrounds and parking
areas.
Rubberised asphalt is one of the
potentially largest markets for the
future. The properties of recycled tyre
materials contribute to the smooth
surface, resistance to aging, improved
rolling resistance, elasticity,
resiliency, splash resistance, and noise
dampening qualities sought after by
civil engineers around the world. |
