Tire Industry Project offers tools toward scrap tire sustainability

GENEVA, Switzerland—Sustainability depends on renewable sources and the establishment of circular economies—and scrap, or end-of-life, tires continue to play a crucial role in the development of both.

As such, the Tire Industry Project has released a "toolkit" for stakeholders in these efforts, essentially "steps for establishing and enhancing ELT management, underlining the social, economic and environmental benefits of systems that work well."

About 1 billion scrap tires are generated each year across the globe, and programs like this toolkit help prevent unregulated tire dumping.

"Better ELT management represents an important opportunity for the circular economy," said TIP Director Anne-Cecile Remont. "We expect the toolkit to complement the good progress already made in several regions. Our workshops bring stakeholders together and have confirmed the benefits of regional legislative and infrastructure support for recycling, and the ongoing efforts of government authorities, the tire industry and manufacturers of ELT-derived products."

The toolkit, among other services, assists in the development of ELT recovery methods, products and applications; offers a check list of progress points for pricing existing ELT ecosystems; and offers best practices from different regions of the world.

"Major opportunities exist for tire companies to improve business value by moving from linear to more circular value chains," according to the TIP.