When Resource last ran an overview of UK tyre recycling back in 2002, it was at a time when there was a fair amount of nervous anticipation within the sector at what the future might hold. Back then, around 50 per cent of all used tyres within the EU ended up in landfill, a destination that from 2003 would be banned for whole tyres and from 2006 for shredded tyres. The worry then was that with few established markets for end-of-life tyres, the EU would be faced with a substantial tyre mountain.

So with landfill now no longer an option where have they all gone? Well, according to the Environment Agency’s (EA) most recent statistics, of the 49 million used tyres that are produced in the UK each year around 25 per cent are reused and six per cent used to make retread tyres, while 25 per cent are burned for energy and some 44 per cent are now recycled in some shape or form.

Yet while the problems associated with landfilling (the fact they don’t decompose and even when buried their constituent chemicals still present a fire risk) may have receded, there has, not surprisingly, been an increase in the illegal dumping and export of tyres, a problem that the EA describes as a ‘crime priority’.

“We are proactively targeting organised waste criminals involved in the illegal export of tyres”, an EA spokesperson insisted. “We’ve been working with shipping lines and HMRC to intervene and disrupt several attempts to export baled tyres illegally.” The clampdown appears to be having an effect. In January 2011, an eight-month EA investigation led to the arrest of three men suspected of illegally exporting waste tyres to Hong Kong and Vietnam. In one successful prosecution relating to the illegal storage and export of waste tyres, the offender was ordered to pay some £54,500 in costs.

The 2006 ban prompted a search for new markets for recycled tyres. WRAP added tyres to its remit and in 2008 issued a report identifying a number of potential uses including: flood defences; sonic, thermal and electrical insulation; and corrosion and impact resistance.

However, whilst progress has been made, there are some stakeholders, such as Peter Taylor, Secretary General of the Tyre Recovery Association, who suggest that much more can be done: “Some markets for recycled tyres are currently growing – most notably its use in sports pitches and children’s playgrounds, and the range of applications has increased in recent years. But there are some potential new markets that merit far greater development.”

He cites the example of using tyre rubber granulate in road surfacing: “This is widespread in parts of North America now. They use it as an overlay material – it’s flexible and doesn’t crack in the way concrete does. It’s very valuable as a road surfacing material in areas where you have high temperature differences – as you do in some parts of the US. It’s about 10 per cent more expensive than a traditional bitumen mix, but it’s long lasting and has valuable safety properties. It’s a real pity we haven’t used it more in this country.”

Reuse is, of course, further up the waste hierarchy, and progress here has been stronger in some parts of the tyre market than in others. Whilst retreading of car tyres has virtually disappeared, the demand for retreaded truck tyres currently outstrips supply. Then there is the issue of ‘part-worns’ – tyres that have yet to reach their minimum legal tread depth of 1.6 millimetres and are sold on secondhand. Not surprisingly, as the economic situation has deteriorated, the trade in part-worns has increased – recent figures suggest that over 1.9 million part-worns were sold in the UK in 2010/11.

Of course, there’s only so far you can go with reuse, and closed-loop recycling would be the next best thing. Alas, such a process still seems a long way off. “The holy grail is de-vulcanisation”, says Taylor. “In other words, finding a means of recovering all the elements that go into the tyre. There are various processes that can reduce the tyre to some of its constituent parts – or at least oils, carbon black and residual steel. But sometimes the molecular properties
of these materials don’t meet virgin material standards.

“That’s not to say we won’t get there, but I think a lot of the responsibility for getting there probably rests with the manufacturers who need to turn their thoughts not just to producing great performing tyres, but also to producing tyres that can be more readily recycled.”

(It should be noted that there is also the potential for tyre parts to be reblended to make new tyres, though at present it’s a market that only extends to lower specification categories like agricultural or trailer tyres.)

One significant step forward might be the adoption of the quality protocol (QP) associated with PAS 107. Developed by British Standards Institute and WRAP in 2007, the PAS defines ‘minimum requirements for the initial storage, production and final storage of tyre-derived rubber materials’. The idea behind the resultant QP is that material that passes the quality threshold will be treated as new and thus its purchasers will no longer have to apply for waste permits and exemptions. The hope is it will stimulate tyre recycling growth.

As the QP was only officially launched in January, it remains to be seen what impact it will have on end markets – or on the practice of burning tyre material in cement kilns for energy, a route that accounts for a quarter of all UK end-of-life tyres. This produces a material that has a similar calorific value to coal, and whilst all UK cement kilns adhere to strict environmental controls, burning does produce sulphur emissions (though less than those caused by burning coal alone). One of the expanding markets in recent years has been the export of tyre-derived fuel. With oil and fuel prices on the rise, tyres, with their high calorific value, have suddenly appeared more attractive. It is a situation that Peter Taylor is not very happy about.

“I think we are a little bit nervous of that. We have an established recovery infrastructure in this country and we would not like to see that undermined. I think we need to try harder to develop new markets for end-of-life tyres”, he reiterates. “We’re not moving up the waste hierarchy as quickly as we should. There is great potential in end-of-life tyres, and quite often I feel that that potential is not being used to its best advantage. Some of that is down to the way that we fund the whole business of recovery.

“Recovery starts with the tyre retailer and the system whereby they charge the motorist a green or recycling fee to change a tyre. Some retailers have tended to hold onto too high a proportion of that, which means that the rest of the recovery chain is then starved of the monies it needs to add more value to the recovery process. There is an inbuilt tendency to look at the cheapest rather than the best recovery option.”

It seems that from top to bottom the tyre sector still has a long road to travel. And it may well take an unlikely combination of economic recovery, emerging technology and (perhaps) legislation, to finally get it out of second gear.