Tyre Disposal

Disposal of Tyres

Extracting the maximum safe life from a tyre makes the best use of the valuable resources it is made up of: rubber, steel, oil etc. Part-worn tyres are potentially a good option for dealing with used tyres when the integrity of the casing is sound and useful tread life remains. However they must comply with certain minimum requirements when sold: the tyre must be checked to ensure that it is sound, a minimum of 2mm tread depth remains and it is marked on both sides as a part-worn. Some 50,000 tonnes of tyres are estimated to have been sold as part-worns in 2006.

Some 480,000 tonnes of tyres reach the end of their first life as tyres: There are various options for treating these: 

• Retreading: Passenger car tyres can be treaded once, and truck tyres up to five times, if the carcass is in reasonabley good condition. In the UK in 2005 some 50,000 tonnes of used tyres (or 12% of all end-of-first life tyres) were treaded;
• Materials recycling: Tyres can be crumbed and granulated for use in a number of applications. These include use in carpet underlay, mats, children's playgrounds; a particular application for which it is hoped that demand will grow is the use of tyre crumb in road surfaces. Tyres can also be cut up and used in civil engineering applications (e.g. drainage culverts). It is estimated that in the UK some 107,000 tonnes were disposed of in these ways in 2001: 25% of the total;
• Landfill engineering: The use of tyres for landfill engineering, as leachate drainage layers, is an acceptable beneficial application for used tyres: used tyres replace vigin aggregate which would otherwise be used to form drainage blanket. Its use for this purpose was permitted to continue and even when the ban on landfilling under the EU Directive came fully into force in 2006. In 2001 16,000 tonnes of tyres were used for this purpose, some 4% of the total;
• Other re-use: Used tyres can be re-used in whole form other than as part-worns. Such uses include applications such as dock fenders, silage clamps on farms, playground swings etc. They can be used as artificial reefs (there is an experimental structure using tyres in Poole Bay operated by Southampton University) and coastal defences, motorway embankments, harbour walls etc. It is estimated that 20,000 tonnes of tyres were treated in this way in 2006 in the UK - some 4.5% of the total;
• Energy recovery: There are two main applications: use for electricity generation and use as a fuel in cement kilns. In recent years tyres were burnt for electricity generation at a plant in Wolverhampton. In 1999 50,000 tonnes were consumed but its operation was closed in June 2001. The use of tyres as a fuel in cement kilns is a proven process and indeed is an improvement on the fuel that it displaces - coal- in that it can add to the quality of the cement produced. It can represent the Best Practicable Environment Option for end of life tyres in many cases and it is the option most likely to offer significant tyre recovery growth in the UK. There are sites where full licences to burn are in operation (Cauldon, Ketton, Westbury, Dunbar, Cookstown, Hope and Rugby). Total energy recovery in 2005 was 40,000 tonnes - some 9% of the total;
• Other recovery projects: There is a range of other projects at various stages of development which will deliver addtional recovery capacity.

The remaining tyres go to export. Landfilling ceased on 16 July 2006 under the terms of the EU Directive.

All tyre manufacturers accept that they have a responsibility to dispose of tyres in an environmentally sound way once they have reached the end of their life. Michelin teamed up with Lafarge to supply substantial quantities of tyres for the latter's cement manufacturing operations. Collectively the BTMA manufacturers have all agreed to play a role in ensuring responsible recycling of tyres.

BTMA is a strongly committed member of the Government/Industry Used Tyre Working Group, which was set up in 1995 as part of the tyre industry's response to the then government's producer responsibility challlenge to recover value from their products when they reached the end of their lives. More information on the Group and its activities can be found on its website, www.tyredisposal.co.uk.