News and feature articles relating to recycling, including collection, of end of life tyres.
Canadian firm Environmental Waste International Inc. has completed testing of its TR900 Pilot Plant. This first trial of the company’s latest tyre recycling machine involved the processing of 20 tyres. EWS says the trial “fully met” its expectations and demonstrated the technical viability of a production scaled TR900 system.
European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) has published data showing that the recovery rate of used tyres (UT) in Europe grew to 96 per cent in 2010. According to the association, this high recovery level is at the top of all waste streams.
In the last decade, tyre industry, dealers and ELT operators have substantially improved ELT utilization. Europe has built up a real experience of three types of ELT management schemes: The tax model, although very limited; free market model and producer responsibility model. ETRMA’s view is that the rapid improvement of the performance of ELT management has been reached “through a sustained deployment of the producer responsibility model in the past decade.” However those operating under the free market model in the UK, which according to the ETRMA’s own figures produces outcomes, which at 98 per cent are 2 percentage points better than the European average, may disagree with this analysis.
On 27 June Karen Bradley, the Conservative MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, asked Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP “what regulations govern the use of tyre bales for land engineering.” While not riveting for those already in the know, their exchange shows that these issues are discussed in the halls of the palace of Westminster and gives some clarity to the interpretation and processes associated with these rules.
This year’s TRA forum (held on 17 June) was the association’s 7th annual meeting and was chaired by TRA secretary general, Peter Taylor OBE. As well as hearing from the ETRMA, delegates also heard presentations from a wide range of organisations involved in tyre recycling including the UK’s Environment Agency, the Department for Business Innovation & Skills, HiQ and Bandvulc.
Recently, Aeolus Tyre Co. announced a first in China –100 per cent environmentally friendly tyre production. The Jiaozuo-based company has taken steps in its manufacturing process so that all tyres produced from now on are REACH-compliant, and it claims to now produce medium truck/bus radials that boast longer tread life, greater retreadability and lower rolling resistance – as much as 24 per cent lower, according to Aeolus.
Pirelli returns to Formula One in the United Kingdom this week for what the company says is a second home Grand Prix this season, after the Italian Grand Prix, since the company employs around 50 at its logistics and distribution facility at Didcot, 45 minutes from Silverstone by car. The 12 engineers assigned to F1’s teams and the 19 tyre fitters whose job it is to put the tyres on the rims are based there too, alongside its 12 carbon black trucks: two service trucks, seven tyre transporters, and three trucks for the hospitality unit.
You wouldn’t dream of buying second hand underpants, would you? Not even if they weren’t too shabby and looked perfectly serviceable? No? What strange priorities we have – the idea of togging up in someone else’s castoff briefs is enough to make most people shudder, even if the risk to health and safety from doing so is nil. Yet when it comes to tyres, something we entrust our lives with, thousands of Britons are perfectly happy to dress their cars with a pre-used product.
The European Tyre Recycling Association has been named amongst the eleven most recent companies and organisations to join the Retread Tire Association. In addition to the Brussels-based association that represents more than 250 tyre recycling professionals, two other international and eight US companies recently joined the RTA.
TyreSafe chairman Stuart Jackson has presented its annual award to PC Shaun McKeown, Forensic Vehicle Examiner for Cumbria Police Collision Investigation Unit, and Sgt Graeme Hodgson from the Roads Policing Unit at the Tyre Recovery Association’s annual dinner held at St Johns Hotel in Solihull on 17 June. Jackson said: “Our thanks go to Cumbria Constabulary for its relentless drive in supporting tyre safety. Not only has it been a great partner behind the scenes but has also been at the fore in many of our initiatives, as well as promoting those of its own.
Pirelli may now be the brand most associated with a definition of “high performance” most concerned with high speeds and quicker lap times thanks to its high profile role in the UK’s highest profile motorsport series, Formula One. Having said that, the high performance tyre segment has for a long time taken a much broader definition in commercial terms, forged by the long-term move to larger sizes and faster speed ratings on small medium and even supermini segment vehicles; Pirelli say it remains optimistic about the future of the segment, since “the word ‘performance’ is taking on a new and more relevant definition in today’s world”. The brand says its range of high performance products “has never been more relevant than it is now… there really is a high performance tyre for everyone”.
Mel Gibson, as we often read and hear, has struggled to keep his nose clean in recent years. From allegations of racism and homophobia to well-publicised rants, the US-born actor has become a magnet for negative media attention. But at least he’s managed to avoid the attention of Tyres & Accessories, right?
Pelmar Engineering Ltd has announced that its annual conference will take place Israel between 19 until 23 June 2011. The last conference was held from 12 – 13 February 2010 in Koln, Germany; held just after the Tire Technology Expo Cologne. The conference also marks the 45th Anniversary of the Pelmar Group and the change in management with Hagai Peled taking over as CEO from his father, Jacob Peled, who will remain as executive chairman of the group.
Tyre Recovery Association members will be the first in Britain to offer Quality Protocol (QP) audits for tyre derived rubber materials to all its members. Based on the BSI Publicly Available Standards (PAS 107) for these materials, qualifying TRA member companies will, from this autumn, be able to acquire new product status for a range of size reduced materials derived from old tyres. Until now all such materials, however valuable, have been deemed waste and therefore subjected to permit and transportation constraints.
Leading companies and individuals involved with end of life tyres are to have their efforts recognised by the industry. The second Michelin Innovation Award will be presented at the Tyre Recovery Association’s (TRA) annual dinner on Friday 17 June. The award will be presented to the company or person judged to have made the most significant innovation in this key area of the industry.
RSM Tenon, the company responsible for administrating Envirotyre, a Carlisle-based company specialising in the processing and reclamation of waste tyres, has confirmed that Envirotyre is in administration and that an asset sale has been initiated. The administrators also confirmed that the business has ceased trading and all 30 jobs have been made redundant.
Envirotyre based in Carlisle is not to be confused with Envirotyre UK Ltd based in Boston, which serves the tyre industry (collection and recycling of all waste tyres) in Central and Eastern England. Following the initial reports of the administration of its Carlisle-based namesake, directors of Envirotyre UK wrote to Tyres & Accessories explaining that the Boston-based business “is in no way connected to Envirotyre Ltd based in Cumbria.” This Central and Eastern English business run by Envirotyre UK Ltd “continues to trade normally” according to company director Richard King.
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