Management of used tires, accomplishments in the world, and situation in Serbia

Abstract

It is estimated that all over the world there are more than 550 million road vehicles in everyday use. Annually, 1.3 billion used tyres are dismantled from these vehicles due to safety reasons. A small number of these tyres end up reused as second-hand tyres or, after being retreated, as new ones. The rest are end of life tyres which are recycled or used as tire derived fuels under controlled combustion conditions. Modern vehicle tyres are a high-technological product containing, on the average, 85% hydrocarbon, 10-15% steel, as well as some other chemical materials. Tyres belong to high caloric materials, with calorific value of a passenger car tyre of approx. 30.2 MJ/kg being more than of hard coal and comparable to calorific value of petrol-coke. Having this in mind many countries use end of life tyres as safe alternative fuel in cement works or power plants. Undeveloped countries dump end of life tyres on legal and illegal scrap stockpiles. End of life tyres, if deposed correctly, don’t endanger the environment because they are chemically inert. However, since they can easily be burnt there is a real possibility of tyre dump fires, which in effect can lead to harmful products emission that extremely pollute the environment. End of life tyres represent a very important secondary material, which when recycled is transformed into a number of raw materials used in rubber industry, for road construction, sports facilities, residential and business buildings, artificial fish habitats in shallow seas, sea walls, steel production, etc. By the industrial procedures of controlled degradation, which have been uneconomical up till now, gaseous and liquid fuel can be obtained by natural rubber, steel and soot recycling. The countries of the EU, together with Norway and Switzerland, were the world leaders in the field of effective end of life tyre management in the year 2009. Out of 2.62 million tonnes of end of life tyres, 95% were restored or used as energents, and 5% settled on dumps. About 26.000 t of used tyres are collected in Serbia each year. In accordance with adopted legal legislations, up to 30% can be used as tire derived fuels while 70% are being recycled. Serbia belongs to the group of countries which have solved the problem of used tyres in a modern way, and in accordance with EU Legislation practice

Life Cycle Assessment of the Car Tire With Eco Indicator 99 Methodology

“…The goal of an LCA study shall unambiguously state the intended application, the reasons for carrying out the study and the intended audience, i.e. to whom the results of the study are intended to be published [10]. The goal of this study is to analyze the environmental impacts of 175/70 R-13 car tire.…”

Investigation of cement based composites made with recycled rubber aggregate

“…Nowadays, the worldwide annual production of waste tires is estimated to approximately 1.4 billion units [4,5]. It is also estimated that tires represent one of the largest and most problematic sources of waste, because of their durability and huge production rate (more than four billion waste tires, generated over several decades, are being disposed of on landfills).…”

“…104/2009 and 81/2010), the disposal of waste tires on landfills is prohibited. These regulations set the annual rate of recycling of waste tires to 70%, and their use for energy production purposes to 30% of the total quantity of waste tires collected in the previous year [4].…”

Modeling of pollutants in the air in terms of fire on dumps / Modelowanie zanieczyszczeń powietrza w warunkach pożaru na wysypisku

“…Dumps are a major problem in Serbia since the fires comes the emergence of a large number of pollutants that may adversely affect the living and working environment. Waste tires are disposed of in many countries landfills, a practice that in developed countries quickly abandoned, and in many countries the law restricted or prohibited it [1].…”

“…Fire, particularly in landfills where the waste tires they usually are in large numbers, is a serious accident due to the specific behavior of burning rubber and very toxic (carcinogenic and mutagenic even) products of the combustion. This fire is very difficult to extinguish [1].…”