Page 43 from: May 2015

T Y R E S

A new concept for
waste management in
South Africa
‘Through the Integrated Industry Waste Tyre
Management Plan, REDISA is building a viable
and sustainable new tyre recycling industry, with
a core focus on developing job creation and
economic opportunities while eradicating the
environment of harmful waste,’ explained the
organisation’s ceo Hermann Erdmann to ETRA
conference delegates in Brussels.
The plan, overseen by REDISA, represents an
initiative of the department of environmental
affairs to create a formal and centralised recy-
cling process. Stakeholders from both the formal
and informal business sectors have been incor-
porated to play a part. Via a waste tyre manage-
ment fee levied on manufacturers and importers
per kilogramme of tyre, the plan is designed to
subsidise and incentivise the collection and recy-
cling of tyres by attaching a value to their collec-
tion that is higher than their current scrap worth.
Operational for two years, the initiative has
already attained a number of milestones, includ-
ing: over 1900 registered tyre dealers; nearly 1650
collection points serviced; 35 depots opened by
the end of 2014; over 1600 jobs and 162 SMEs
created; and more than 77 600 tonnes of waste
tyres collected before the end of January 2015.

eral for the past two decades. ‘Standards are

essential: with them, we can tell our customers

what we are actually selling. Standards could

become even more important in the future as

new materials are entering our businesses.’

That is especially true for recovered carbon

black because operators of pyrolysis plants still

seem to be facing problems in selling their

products. A standard for recovered/reclaimed

carbon black (rCB) would be most welcome, as

became clear during a discussion on the side-

lines of the Brussels conference. The interna-

tional standards organisation ASTM Interna-

tional is already working on standards for rCB

produced by end-of-life tyre pyrolysis. ‘Such a

globally-recognised ASTM standard indeed

would be a huge step forward,’ one recycler said.

He hoped a standard of this kind would enable

rCB producers to overcome the apparent lack

of acceptance of their product by target indus-

tries such as the rubber and tyre sectors.

But there was a tough message from François

Terrade, founder and ceo of Pro2Act Manage-

ment, who pointed out: ‘It is still a long way before

the carbon black industry is convinced that

reclaimed carbon black is as good as theirs. Many

people are looking down on rCB, saying it is “ash”.’

Top of the agenda
By recovering carbon material from ELTs, the first

hurdles are to incorporate it correctly into rubber

or plastics. Terrade acknowledged that rCB pro-

ducers are well on the way to attaining this objec-

tive, saying: ‘Most of the “good projects” have

sorted out this dispersion problem by better

pyrolysis, grinding and pelletising processes.’

At the top of the agenda now is the issue of rCB

reinforcement. Terrade urged delegates to take

further action on the carbon black surface, to

which end he recommended teamwork with

the carbon black and tyre industry. ‘A team

approach will shorten the research and devel-

opment considerably and lead to a win-win

situation,’ he contended.

Cross-industry co-operation to develop tai-

lor-made carbon blacks also came highly rec-

ommended by independent advisor Martin von

Wolfersdorff. ‘Because only if the rCB fits 100%

in the various applications can you achieve the

highest possible value added,’ he said.

He advised strongly against an exclusive focus

on the tyre industry. ‘Look for other applica-

tions,’ he insisted. ‘The road of rCB to the high-

tech technology of tyres is a hard and difficult

one. Many people believed the recovery of car-

bon black to be an “Alice in Wonderland” story

– I have not discovered this Wonderland yet.’

Many companies are still in a funding or com-

mercialisation stage, while rCB product devel-

opment is also in its early stages.

‘Very fast process’
Some tyre pyrolysis plants have even been

plagued by financial issues. Frank Riedewald,

managing director of Composite Recycling

in the Republic of Ireland, identified two

main reasons for this: the shredding and gran-

ulating operation which results in high oper-

ating costs; and the indirect heat transfer oper-

ation, resulting in residence times of between

two and four hours depending on temperature.

But the qualified engineer believes there is more

that must be addressed, including that a tyre

pyrolysis plant has to operate with whole tyres,

and that the process has to be simple and

should be scalable. And he expressed his belief

that his company’s completely new approach

will be able to satisfy all these requirements.

‘The concept is to place whole tyres on to

molten metal, resulting in a very fast process,’

he explained (see box).

Aside from new technologies in the fields of

pyrolysis and carbon black, there is plenty of

research taking place into the valorisation of

other materials recovered from tyres. Tradition-

al recycled tyre rubber material was demon-

strated as a concrete additive for a variety of

products and applications. Recycled rubber can

also be used as a coating material – for instance,

for aggregates.

Other projects showed that formatted tyre steel

(wire) can be used as a replacement for huge

quantities of virgin steel, and that polymer

fibres are also an evolving market. The urban

environment has long since become a vast mar-

ket for these recycled tyre materials because of

their performance. And as became clear at the

ETRA conference, there is still no end to this

road in sight.

There were 320.58 million tyres available
for recycling in Europe last year.

43May 2015

RI 4-Tyre recycling.indd 43 30-04-15 14:42