Market failure in tyre recycling

Silvio de Denaro* explains why and how the tyre industry is working hard to turn around the current ‘market failure’ in the resource recovery of end-of-life tyres.

Recent estimates suggest that each year Australia is presented with around 300,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres. Of these, some are disposed of through legal channels such as landfill, some are dumped illegally and just 28% are currently being recycled or reprocessed.

Historically, the industry has suffered from what economists call a market failure when it comes to resource recovery. The inherent resource value of used tyres is not being exploited by the market for various reasons.

Worse still, rising landfill disposal costs over the past few years have resulted in a new phenomenon - export of our tyre waste overseas to countries with a demand for old tyres, such as China. With the high amount of imports coming in, it’s relatively cheap to fill shipping containers that would be going back to their country of origin otherwise empty.

While this practice may make sense in the short term, it is killing our recycling economy. There is no incentive for investment in the sophisticated machinery needed to process tyres into fine power - all you need is a hydraulic press to compress them enough for shipping.

What this really means is that we are exporting the problem. Not only that, but these exported tyres are often being used in ways that are potentially disastrous for the environment - for example, being fired in home-made kilns. Most of these processes are unregulated and unsophisticated.

For these reasons, stakeholders within our industry have been thinking for a long time now how we can minimise this market failure and maximise resource recovery. The Australian Tyre Industry Council (ATIC) has been working together with the Department of Environment and Water Resources on a National Used Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme.

Industry has been concerned for some time that we should address this now and not put our head in the sand and wait. Government is now starting to catch on and has made a serious statement of intent that they intend to address this particular area of waste as part of the recent federal product stewardship legislation.

The National Used Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme aims to find better ways to exploit the residual potential of used tyres, contribute to a better environment and minimise the number of tyres going to landfill. Studies we have undertaken so far show that there are a number of ways we can re-use end-of-life-tyres that can be implemented relatively quickly and easily.

Rubberised asphalt for use in roads is a relatively simple technology and has, in fact, been in use for the past 20 years overseas. For example, the Arizona Department of Transport experimented with this technology a number of years ago and found it was a positive way to use substantial volumes of end-of-life tyres.

By using rubberised asphalt, the Department enjoyed cost savings - road maintenance was reduced as the rubberised surface was more durable. Performance for road users was also enhanced with improved braking distances and a reduction in rolling noise.

Another potential application in Australia with our current focus on resource mining is using the energy in old tyres in the process of resource extraction. Current explosive techniques favoured by the mining industry use a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. Experiments have shown that there are multiple advantages to be had by replacing the fuel oil with a rubber crumb. The rubber crumb is much safer to handle than oil or diesel and reduces our reliance on an imported resource. We’re also re-using the energy of old tyres and reducing the waste going to landfill.

Every day I hear about another use for old tyres that promises to be the best thing since sliced bread. Many are not practical as they need to be not only sustainable but economically viable too. However, we already know that technologies such as the two outlined above do work. It’s just a matter of investing in and implementing the technology.

*Silvio de Denaro is the Secretary of the Australian Tyre Industry Council (www.atig.org.au). ATIG is a not-for-profit, industry-based organisation that is proactive in the search for an effective solution to the problem of end-of-life tyres. The organisation is a source of information on tyre statistics and the progress of the National Used Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme.

Silvio de Denaro will also be one of the panellists in a discussion on product stewardship which is part of the Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo being held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour on 10 and 11 November. For further details on the conference, go to www.awre.com.au.