European Recycling, Recovery Rates Still Growing, Claims ETRMA

Figures released by the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers’ Association show end of life tyre recycling and recovery rates last year to have exceeded 95 per cent. The 2008 statistics released by the ETRMA show a continuation in the pattern seen over the last 15 years or so, a period during which the disposal of end of life tyres in landfill has decreased from more than 60 per cent in 1994 to around five per cent today. The number of old tyres receiving ecological treatment, the ETRMA notes, has increased by an average of four per cent yearly.

These results, states the ETRMA, demonstrates the efficiency of the strategy deployed by its European tyre manufacturer members in anticipating the regulatory, environmental and economic challenges imposed by the EU landfill ban. In 2008, up to 60 per cent of the 3.3 million tonnes of end of life tyres in the European market were collected and treated under Producer Responsibility obligations. While energy recovery continues to account for around 35 per cent of these tyres, material recycling is the market to have most benefited from falling landfill usage. Between 1994 and 2008, the recycling rate has grown to 40 per cent, showing that the recycling applications market is being sustainably consolidated.

According to the ETRMA, the aim of European tyre manufacturers’ is to “further reinforce the healthy and gradually maturing end of life tyre recycling market with solid product and process standards based on scientific and economic evidence.” These standards are being developed within national and European bodies.