Jun 14 2006
In a complete reversal of the situation a decade ago, the tyre recovery rate was now higher in many parts of the EU than in the USA, the BIR Tyres Committee meeting in Beijing was informed by its Chairman, Barend Ten Bruggencate of The Netherlands.
Landfills had consumed 62% of the EU's scrap tyres as recently as 1994 and yet this figure had plummeted to 20% by 2004 when some 3.213 million tonnes of used tyres were recovered across the 25 member states. Having noted that energy recovery applications absorbed 31% of used tyres in 2004 compared to 11% in 1994, Mr Ten Bruggencate pointed out that tyres provided excellent calorific value and represented "a good replacement for fossil fuels". One tonne of tyres was equivalent to "one tonne of good-quality coal," he added.
As for material recycling, Mr Ten Bruggencate underlined in particular the massive potential for using crumb and powdered rubber in playground and sports surfaces. He confirmed that talks were to take place to assess whether such products could play a part in the 2012 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The Tyres Committee Chairman went on to describe as "unbelievable" a recent Dutch newspaper article which suggested rubber granulate was carcinogenic. Following laboratory tests, the Dutch environment ministry had gone on record as saying that granulate was not a cause of cancer, he pointed out.
According to guest speaker Jiang Zhiyun, President of the China Tyre Retreading, Repairing & Recycling Association, approximately 120 million scrap tyres were generated in China last year, of which some 9 million were retreaded. Meanwhile, production of reclaimed rubber from tyres amounted to around 1.2 million tonnes. He commented: "Great attention has been paid to the development of the tyre recycling industry due to the short supply of rubber in China."
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