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Tyre Disposal and Recycling

This is an eventful time for the tyre industry when it comes to tyre disposal. The landfill bans are creeping ever nearer, the End of Life Vehicle Directive looms and retreading – for so long one of the main avenues of disposal – is far from buoyant. Then there is the row over the definition of waste, which is exercising the minds of many would-be recyclers and, they say, hampering their efforts to deal with scrap tyres effectively. On top of all this, in the UK the Government has asked the tyre industry to think again about producer responsibility after rejecting their original ideas. An eventful time indeed.

16th May 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

China To Deflate Rubber

Chinese government departments plan to curb the rising price of rubber on the domestic market in an effort to ease the pressure on manufacturing enterprises. The measures include proposed include; directly selling large quantities of the country’s natural rubber reserve to tyre producers, seeking possible increase of the import quota of natural rubber and avoiding the possibility of an increased import quota entering the futures market for speculation.

12th March 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Zimbabwe Crisis Impacts On Tyre Sector

The Zimbabwe government’s price controls have impacted on the tyre sector and forced vehicle operators to lay off vehicles. Tyres are now being sought after on the black market after local manufacturer, Dunlop downsized operations due to price controls. Firestone and Bridgestone are no longer imported. Only a small number of Goodyear tyres were escaping the price restrictions and supplies have all but dried up. Some transport operators have resorted to bulk buying and bypassing dealers and importing tyres for themselves.

6th March 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Investment In Belarus Required

Belshina is seeking investment of 72.2 million dollars from Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Japan for the completion of three projects to develop new tyre production at Belshina. The Belarussian government has a programme to attract 1.5 billion dollars in place for 2003. This will be allied to a monetary, price and tax reform designed to encourage inward investment.

12th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Disappointment at Government’s initial response to producer responsibility question

In January, the Tyre Industry Council held one of its regular briefings for the press and associate companies. After welcome from Secretary Peter Taylor, Chris Wakley, who handles public relations for the TIC, gave a brief summary of last year’s activities. While stressing that the support from police forces was as strong as ever, he said that fewer tyre checks than planned had been carried out. One reason for this was the need for cars to accompany the Green Goddesses during the firefighters’ strike, but another major reason was the perennial problem of lack of fitters to attend roadside checks. The reasons for this have been frequently aired in this magazine, but the fact is, said Wakley, that fitters are essential for the exercise, as police are sometimes reluctant to interpret tyre law at the roadside and rely on the trade’s specialist knowledge. The end result is that the number of cars checked was around half of that in 2001.Despite this, the figures concerning illegal tyres are remarkably consistent, with 11.6% of cars checked having at least one tyre with a tread depth below 1.6 mm. The figure for 2001 was 11.7%. However, when we look at what the TIC describes as “badly worn tyres” (ie with a tread depth above the legal minimum but below 2mm), there has been a worrying increase, from 11.7% to 14.9%. Although common sense dictates that worn tyres increase the chances of an accident, this is not accepted by Government, who say that statistics show that tyres contribute to a very small number of accidents. The TIC’s answer to this is that the police rarely record tyre tread depths in accident situations, so the figures are artificially low.

10th February 2003/by Tyrepress Editors

Mystery Shopping Exercise Shows Up Faults

More than half of garages across the UK deliver low standards of service to customers, according to new research published recently. Key car industry figures have met with Consumer Minister Melanie Johnson and Industry Minister Alan Johnson to discuss the problem. The Ministers welcomed a pledge from the industry to sign up in principle to develop a ‘Good Garage’ scheme to tackle the low standards.A recent government-sponsored mystery shopping survey found that 51 per cent of garages missed one or more safety-related defects in cars or items that should have been picked up in a regular servicing. The survey also revealed that, only five per cent of garages sampled carried out a thorough service against the manufacturer’s schedule and were judged to be ‘very good’,· 86 per cent of garages missed at least one introduced fault· 40 per cent of garages missed at least one service item; 51 per cent if the customer was female, 33 per cent if the customer was male; and· 27 per cent of fast fit centres recommended unnecessary replacement of parts.

28th November 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Retreading: Top Of The Recycling Pile?

Retreading appears to generate a dichotomy for U.K Government’s environmental “sustainability programme”. On the one hand, retreading a tyre obviously makes better use of the original materials and extends the life of the new tyre, thus creating a lesser demand on fossil fuels and an ultimately finite supply of some raw materials. On the other hand, like any other consumer product, a retread will still end up needing recycling at some time in its life; some call this deferred disposal, but it seems that not all the environmental lobbyists have recognised the fact that recycling only ever delays the ultimate disposal; it can rarely, if ever, offer a final solution but still plays a vital role in resource management.In the UK we already have a very high percentage of recovery and re-use of tyres, including a significant contribution from retreading. Gary Oliver, Chairman of the RMA Marketing and Communication Committee, explains further why he believes retreads are industry’s leading sustainable option. “The retreaders’ case goes something like this. If the market uses 200,000 tonnes of new tyres per annum, then over five years there will be a demand for 1,000,000 tonnes of new tyres. If 50% of those tyres are retreaded every year, then the demand for new tyres falls to 600,000 tonnes over five years, whilst retreading accounts for the other 400,000 tonnes. The fundamentals to sustainable development are thereby catered for; that waste is minimised from 1,000,000 tonnes to just 600,000 tonnes and scarce natural resources are conserved. The maths are simplistic, of course, but if the primary objective of best environmental practice is to minimise use of raw materials, retreading does this whilst also meeting the second best objective of re-use. It is non-sensical that in its recent Producer Responsibility paper the DTI – with the Environment Agency in support – took retreading out of the reprocessing calculations for waste tyres ignoring a real and positive contribution to sustainable practice and effective waste management. By taking us out of the picture simply because we do not fit the way they wish to work and measure their environment performance indicators, we are effectively excluded from any of the economic considerations and unable to contribute towards waste recovery.”

28th November 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

RMIF Supports Licensing The Trade

Fred Maguire, president of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF) has openly supported government plans which may lead to garage licensing. He acknowledged that the government’s mystery shopping review of the trade had revealed serious problems which need to be addressed. In that light he was putting the support of the RMIF behind the “Good Garage Scheme”. He also stated, “We can only achieve excellence by concerted efforts and improvement in training. So, as an industry we have to take positive action in the training arena. If RMIF members set this as their priority objective, they will have nothing to fear (from licensing).”

1st November 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Baroness Young Calls For Higher Waste Tax

Taxing waste disposal to pay for recycling and composting facilities, and an energy policy that will deliver 60% cuts in greenhouse gases should be at the top of the Government’s action list post Johannesburg according to Baroness Barbara Young, Chief Executive of the Environment. Speaking at Environment UK 2002, Barbara Young said government, its agencies and NGOs need to deploy all the tools at their disposal to create the massive shift in SME and public behaviour needed to overcome challenges such as the growing waste problem. Raising the landfill tax may have a short-term adverse affect on waste tyre disposal. A tax on waste though may well have a long term positive impact on recycling of waste tyres.

24th October 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Motor Industry To Work With DTI To Improve Standards

Government sponsored mystery shopping in the UK revealed that 51 per cent of garages missed one or more safety related defects and that the standards of servicing varied widely and that 86 per cent of garages missed an introduced fault on test vehicles. Some 27 per cent of fast fit centres recommended unnecessary replacement of parts. The government and industry are to work together to promote the “Good garage” scheme to deliver a better deal for consumers.

19th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

EU Approval of Grant To Continental

The European Union has approved grants given by the Portuguese government to Continental as an incentive to establish projects in Lousado, Portugal. The Swedish government had raised objections when Continental closed a production plant in Sweden (Gislaved) and transferred work to Portugal (Mabor). The EU reserves the right to re-examine the case if new evidence arises.

4th September 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Return To Algeria For Michelin

By forming a company – Michelin Algerie – Michelin has made the first move to re-open its factory in Algeria, which was closed in 1993. A Government-led privatisation programme has been aimed at attracting foreign investment and Michelin is said to be “waiting for some answers from Government” before deciding whether to re-start production. Should this happen, the factory will employ 500 people and manufacture truck tyres, 60 per cent of which will be exported.

21st August 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

RMA Petition Federal Government For Reserve Air Pressure

The RMA in the USA have petitioned the federal government to adopt a reserve air pressure standard for tyre pressure monitoring systems. According to the RMA, vehicle manufacturers set the safe pressure limit at, or just above, the minimum required for safe operation of a fully laden vehicle. The existing 30 per cent drop in pressure allowed by tyre pressure monitoring systems means that fully laden vehicles could be running on tyres inflated to dangerously low levels. The RMA is asking that the suggested tyre pressure setting should be set at 30 per cent above the safe limit, thus allowing 30 percent loss without creating a dangerous underinflation.

22nd July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Trouble For Dunlop Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s only tyre manufacturer, Dunlop Zimbabwe, is at the centre of a political row. A member of the ruling Zanu PF party visited the company after reports on the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation alleged that Dunlop was closing down as part of a plan by white-owned businesses to stir up unrest against the government. This has been refuted by a source close to Dunlop, which says that the company is suffering because of Zimbabwe’s shortage of foreign currency and government controls over tyre prices, but there are no plans to close down. The company, which employs around 800 staff, imports 90 per cent of raw materials needed to make tyres and wants to raise tyre prices. It has already suspended credit sales to customers in order to minimise losses.

12th July 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Joined Up Government?

UK papers have carried news that the government has decided that the last owner of a vehicle will be liable for the disposal costs at the end of vehicle life, at least until 2007. This counters the concept in the Producer Responsibility document on waste tyres that the cost of disposal should lie with the source of the tyre – the manufacturer or the distributor – this to minimise the point of contact for accountability, and ensure that the correct route to disposal is accounted for. There are fears that placing the burden of disposal directly on the end user will lead to an increase in the number of dumped cars. Alternative financing systems are being considered for post 2007. The ELV statement comes from the Dti, which is also the source of the Producer Responsibility document on waste tyres.

12th June 2002/by Tyrepress Editors