55recyclinginternational.com | July/August | 2021
Dr Valerie Shulman, director
of ETRA (France)
Shulman’s expertise in tyre recycling
dates back over 25 years, which she has brought to
the fore in her role at the European Tyre Recycling
Association. She wrote the book on tyre recycling:
introducing terminology, writing scientific reports,
passionately sharing statistics at international con-
gresses and acting as a global advocate for recy-
clers across the continent. Her efforts earned a life-
time achievement award at the inaugural 2021
ReCircle Awards, organised by industry partners
and Tyre & Rubber Recycling magazine. Shulman
tells us that she regrets that dumped tyres and
stockpiles still dominate the conversation rather
than ‘new and sophisticated applications’.
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Orbay Simsek,
owner of
Simsekler Ship
Recycling (Turkey)
For Simsek and his ship-dis-
mantling operation, 2020 had
two contrasting sides. The
good news is that the business
grew. With the global tourism
industry in deep crisis because
of the coronavirus, more
redundant passenger cruise
vessels were arriving on
Turkey’s west coast to be
scrapped. Simsekler Ship
Recycling was among the lucky
ones to benefit. However,
while turning the crisis into an
opportunity, Simsek was con-
fronted with a fatal incident at
the yard in early February. One
of his workers was cutting
steel and, as he finished the
task, a piece of steel fell on
him. Fellow dismantlers
responded as quickly as possi-
ble and took the injured work-
er to hospital but, despite all
efforts, he lost his life.
‘What happened is very trag-
ic,’ Simsek told RI a few days
after the accident. We admire
the recycler’s openness and
believe he should be support-
ed. Recycling is not without
risk and each year the industry
suffers many fatalities.
Worn Again Technologies
(UK)
Worn Again Technologies has developed
a regenerative technology that enables the circu-
larity of polyethylene (PET) and cellulosic raw
materials. The cradle-to-cradle certified company
separates, decontaminates and extracts polyester
and cellulose from non-reusable textiles and poly-
ester bottles and packaging to produce dual PET
and cellulose outputs. This puts secondary resourc-
es back into production supply chains, cutting the
need for virgin materials.
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