News and feature articles relating to recycling, including collection, of end of life tyres.
Before the Spanish Grand Prix, Paul Hembery spoke with Detlef Vogt, an editor with Tyres & Accessories’ sister magazine Neue Reifenzeitung. In this interview, the Motorsport director spoke in more detail about Pirelli’s Formula One tyre philosophy, the controversy that is quickly becoming a yearly tradition of the company’s supply tenure, and why the company is “not in the sport to be thanked or loved”.
A new initiative to help garages and tyre retailers across the country has been launched by the Tyre Recovery Association today. The Responsible Retailer Certificate of Compliance will be awarded to retailers meeting best practice standards by a member of the Tyre Industry Federation Responsible Recycler Scheme. The TRA says that the new scheme is designed to help garages and retailers not only to manage their used tyre disposal in line with industry standards; the Responsible Retailer Scheme also aims to help compliant businesses communicate their environmentally responsible credentials to customers. Also launched was a new website, which will contain a searchable database of all certified garages for motorists and of local collectors for retailers.
US transportation body the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall on almost 12,000 tyres. What makes this recall stand out from the crowd is that the tyres in question were previously recalled – and then resold.
Leading UK food waste recycling and animal by-product transporter, John Pointon & Sons has put into place a structured tyre management process. The firm will work closely with Staffordshire tyre supplier, Potteries Tyres of Stoke-on-Trent and Continental Tyres to minimise tyre costs and unplanned downtime, while ensuring the tyres meet the varied demands and working conditions of Pointon’s fleet of 68 trucks and 216 trailers.
The first commercially-available Tweel product has landed Michelin North America a Silver Edison Award. The tyre maker was presented with the transport category award at the Edison Awards ceremony, which was held on 25 April.
The Tweel concept has been around for the best part of a decade, and earlier this year commercial sales of Tweel products began. The first on the market, the Michelin X-Tweel SSL, is a finalist in the 2013 Edison Awards. The X-Tweel SSL appears in the Transportation category, one of 12 Edison Awards categories. Winners will be announced on 25 April.
Bridgestone Europe says it will present a “strong line-up” of OTR tyres at this month’s Bauma 2013 trade show in Germany. At its stand (109/206 in hall A6), the company will present details of its “Total Tyre Care” programme plus present its new 20.5 R25 VSDR. Tyre aficionados will also have the chance to ogle the world’s largest OTR radial.
SRH Hamburg has extended its fleet contract with Bandvulc Tyres in conjunction with Vergölst GmbH, Bandvulc’s exclusive service provider partner in Germany. This means an extension of three years on the Wastemaster MKIII tyre, much to the delight of Simon Arnold, Bandvulc’s overseas business development manager:
…but may be counter-suing the Environment Agency for millions. On 1 February Recycled Construction Systems Ltd (RCS) was ordered to pay £27,244 in fines and costs for illegally storing 100,000 waste tyres at a warehouse in East Devon. In the case was brought by the Environment Agency (EA) and heard at Exeter Crown Court RCS was found guilty of illegally depositing and storing 96,000 waste tyres at Westerhope Units, Dunkeswell. According to the EA, the company was one of several defendants in the South West’s largest ever waste crime investigation.
The use of recycled tyre rubber in the production of new tyres hasn’t really taken off yet, and a main reason for this is because the rubber powder produced by traditional recycling methods doesn’t always reach the level of purity required by new tyre makers – indeed, the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers’ Association opines that “while in the EU around 39 per cent of material from end of life tyres is recovered [this includes rubber, but also steel and fabric], recycled materials cannot be used as a substitute for natural rubber in new tyres because of technical limitations.” But now a firm in Hungary claims to have perfected a process that removes every last trace of steel from the rubber powder, thereby overcoming this limitation. Speaking with Tyres & Accessories during February’s Tire Technology Expo in Germany, Gábor Kostyál, CEO of HungaroJet Ltd., described the technology involved and how it can benefit the tyre and rubber industry.
Dutch company Bandenmarkt Tyre & Wheels says the new product range it is showing at this week’s SIMA show in Paris addresses a frustrating issue for farmers – tyre related breakdowns. The firm’s “Heavy Duty” agricultural radial range features reinforced steel and a puncture-resistant kevlar layer under the tread. Bandenmarkt Tyre & Wheels also says the tyre line-up has a higher load capacity than its competitors and extreme stability even at 65km/h.
Italian family-run business Salvadori SRL, which was established in the 1980s, reports a growing global demand from customers. In order to satisfy this, and to combine its retreading and tyre recycling activities in the one location, the firm recently moved to new, larger headquarters and warehouse buildings. Furthermore, Salvadori has announced details of its investment in two brand new production projects, both of which are expected to boost the company’s competitiveness and the quality of its product/service portfolio. The stated primary aim of this investment is to offer customers retreading and tyre repair accessories that are both competitively-priced and, through the application of production and quality controls, products that the customer can rely upon.
Continental’s Specialty Tires business unit has added an eco-friendly product, LifeCycle, to its portfolio. The solid rubber tyre is retreaded upon selected used casings, the utilisation of which is said to lead to considerable savings in energy raw materials used in the production process, and this lowers product price. “With customers’ help this large-scale recycling initiative will help to bring down the number of scrap tyres needing disposal as well as the emission of climate-changing CO2,” shared Continental in a written statement. “Continental LifeCycle protects nature and offers cost savings.”
At present, 75 per cent of the natural rubber imported into Europe is used in the tyre sector and 93 per cent of this originates from South East Asia. The industry is thus dependent on one particular region for its most significant raw material.
UK firm Symphony Recycling Technologies says it has released a semi-automatic tyre cutter that is small enough to be used by neighbourhood garages and can completely scrap a tyre in 60 seconds. The SymTyre-S300 is aimed at businesses wishing to flat-pack end of life tyres for easier and more cost effective storage and transportation.
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