Since the mid-1990s, recycling and energy recovery have been commanding an ever-more decisive role in the European used tire market, the latest BIR Tires Roundtable was told by Chairman Barend Ten Bruggencate from The Netherlands.
Quoting figures from the European rubber industry association BLIC, he pointed out that 28 percent of the used tires generated by the EU’s established 15 member states had gone for recycling in 2003 compared to a mere 6 percent in 1994.
Over the same period, the share of used tires going for energy recovery had leapt from 11 percent to 30 percent. Most of these gains had been at the expense of the landfilling option: only 18 percent of used tires had been dumped in 2003 compared to 62 percent nine years earlier.
But while Ten Bruggencate recognized the ‘enormous' progress achieved over the last decade, he stressed that certain EU-15 countries ‘still have problems’: notably, Greece, Ireland and Spain had used tire recovery rates of only 28 percent, 25 percent and 40 percent respectively in 2003. In the same year, half of the EU’s 10 new member states were landfilling all of their used tires.
According to the speaker, Eastern European universities could be a significant source of assistance for Western European companies looking to invest in the east; interested parties should contact the European Commission’s DG Research for further information about the money available, he added.
Guest speaker at the roundtable was Maarten van Randeraat of Granuband in The Netherlands, a company which manufactures a range of products from used tires including Granufill infill material for synthetic sports pitches and Granuflex tiles for children’s playground areas, horse stable floors and other indoor/outdoor applications.
Formed in 1991, Granuband opened a high-tech, multi-million Euro factory in 2002 and currently recycles about 25,000 metric tons of used tires per year. Among his observations, the speaker noted that approval of artificial pitches by the European football body UEFA would provide a significant boost for companies such as his own.
van Randeraat also discussed the workings of the Recybem foundation which administers the recycling system for all new tires coming into the Dutch market. He explained that importers and producers were adding € 2 to the cost of each new tire: € 1.25 went to certified collectors to cover, for example, the handling of tires with no resale value; the remaining € 0.75 was kept by Recybem to cover its administration, management and audit costs. The guest speaker commented: ‘A good collection and recycling system needs good companies. Good companies are not afraid of certification and audits.’