Organizations eye recycling market growth

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario—The worldwide regulatory climate for scrap tire recycling is challenging, but national organizations are striving to meet all regulations and create robust recycled rubber markets, according to speakers at the 2016 Rubber Recycling Symposium, held in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Oct. 5-7.

“Driving Towards the Circular Economy” was the theme of the conference, sponsored jointly by Ontario Tire Stewardship, the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada, and the Rubber Manufacturers Association. Presentations at the conference concentrated on efforts by private organizations, recyclers, tire manufacturers and government agencies to create sustainable tire production based on recovery and reutilization of recycled tire materials.

The Canadian Tire Recycling Association exists to empower tire recycling across Canada and support the circular economy, according to Jeff MacCallum, CEO of Divert Nova Scotia, that province's not-for-profit tire recycling organization.

“Working together, we feel we can accomplish more,” said MacCallum of CATRA's 11 provincial and territorial member organizations.

CATRA brings together the best minds in Canadian tire recycling and affiliated groups, he said. It serves the tire recycling industry in five areas, he added: knowledge management, service to members, facilitation of sustainable markets, organizational capacity and advocacy.

Stakeholders in CATRA include government departments and agencies, international recycling groups and tire industry groups, MacCallum said.

Scrap tire collection is growing steadily in Canada, according to MacCallum. In 2015, a total of 395,342 metric tons were collected, up from 393,291 tons in 2014, he said.

Total revenue from tire recycling fees has remained steady at about $170 million to $180 million annually, while most provinces either have reduced fees or left them unchanged, MacCallum said.

Canada has a complex regulatory environment regarding scrap tires, with varying definitions of tire stewards from province to province, he said.

“There are different interpretations across the country, and CATRA would like to see that harmonized,” he said.

Also, provinces vary as to which tires they will accept, according to MacCallum. Not every province collects bicycle tires, and only Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island accept all sizes of off-the-road tires, he said.

All Canadian provinces require annual performance reports on scrap tire stewardship, but the details are inconsistent from province to province, MacCallum said.

Regulations require annual financial audits in all but two member jurisdictions, he said.

Crumb rubber is the main product of Canadian tire recyclers, comprising 35 percent of total output, the executive said. Molded goods are second at 24 percent, and tire-derived fuel third at 11 percent, he said.

Five CATRA member organizations—in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan—offer community grant programs for installation of playgrounds, athletic fields, landscaping and other projects, according to MacCallum.

All CATRA members dedicate significant resources to public education about tire maintenance and recycling, and many—including Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland/Labrador—fund R&D and innovation programs, MacCallum said.

“Our members are constantly on the lookout for new and better ways to recycle and use scrap tires,” he said.

Looking ahead

CATRA's eight working committees are focusing on the association's Strategic Plan for 2016-18 to enhance value to members and spur industry growth, MacCallum said.

RecyBEM, one of the smaller tire management initiatives in the European Union, is also proactive in its efforts to fulfill the obligations set out in Dutch legislation on waste management for end-of-life tires, according to RecyBEM President Kees van Oostenrijk.

Van Oostenrijk has been RecyBEM president since its founding in 2004. The organization is an initiative of Vereniging Band en Milieu, the Dutch tire association, he said.

The irony of tires, van Oostenrijk said, is that the earliest tires, made around 1900, were totally green.

“Today's tires are a complex and highly technological product,” he said. “By stimulating the circular environmental value of a tire, we make sure that the tire is green again.”

As the connector between the vehicle and the road surface, tires are literally caught between a rock and a hard place, according to van Oostenrijk.

“In a tire's post-consumer stage, black isn't beautiful—black is dirty,” he said. “Is an end-of-life tire the orphaned child of the tire producers, despite their extended producer responsibility? Can a waste product be the basis for valuable recycled products and materials? The chain is still showing a deficit.”

Some 425 million tires are discarded annually in the EU, with RecyBEM collecting some 10 million used car and truck tires in the Netherlands alone, van Oostenrijk said.

RecyBEM is legally bound to fulfill Dutch regulations on ELTs, he said. Dutch law states that for every new passenger, light truck or trailer tire they bring to the Dutch market, tire manufacturers and importers must collect an ELT free of charge and reuse or recycle it in an environmentally friendly way.

At least 20 percent of the ELTs must be reused, the Dutch law states, and RecyBEM exceeds this requirement, he said.

The Netherlands places a recycling fee of one Euro, 30 cents on each new tire sold in the country; proceeds go to scrap tire abatement and research, according to Van Oostenrijk. The money goes to scrap tire collection and research, he said.

Scrap tires collected in the Netherlands provide some 32 million kilograms of high-grade raw materials annually, in turn reducing carbon dioxide emissions by almost 60,000 metric tons, he said

Benefits of crumb rubber

John Sheerin, director of end-of-life tire programs for the RMA, presented the association's 2015 Scrap Tire Management Report, which he also presented at the International Tire Exhibition & Conference in Akron in September 2016.

“There are more than 100 uses for scrap tires, and we need them all,” he said.

Of all current uses for scrap tires, crumb rubber is probably the most circular, according to Sheerin.

“It can be used as rubberized asphalt over and over and over,” he said. However, state transportation regulations and a bad reputation arising from ill-considered legislation in the 1990s have hampered acceptance of rubberized asphalt, although the technology is widely used in California, he said.

Sheerin said he expected a scrap tire bill to be introduced in the Texas legislature in its next session.

“In Texas, 67 million tires is the floor estimate for the stockpiles they have there,” he said. “When a state looks for stockpiles, they will find them.

“Oklahoma has been cleaning up its stockpiles for the last few years, then suddenly finds another 100,000,” Sheerin said. “Some states don't look very hard—New Jersey just found 500,000 tires stockpiled. And some states are blissfully ignorant.”