When car tires are worn or too old they are at the end of their life and are called end of life tires (ELT’s) and need to be disposed of. Tires are difficult to get rid of in a safe way, because of the type of materials and chemicals that go into them when manufactured. They are also very tough and durable and not biodegradable.
Tires used to be dumped at landfill sites not long ago. The amount of cars keeps increasing, because of population growth. Tires are disposed of in their millions each year and take too much space for landfills. One solution was to burn them to free up space, but this solution had its own problems like air pollution for one.Then a new way of thinking began and people started to ask. Can car tires be recycled?
There are a lot of new and inventive ways to recycle old worn tires. Here are some tire recycle ideas for used and worn tires:
Re-treading worn tires
Recycling for repurposing!
Tire recycling is done by putting new tread and sidewalls on a worn tire extending the tire’s life. Much less rubber and other materials is needed to create a new tire again, and hence literally recycle the tire. The tire needs to go through the curing process again with the new rubber tread so it can vulcanize and become strong again. If the tire casing (body of the tire) is still strong it can be re-treaded up to 3 times and less tires will be disposed off each year. Re-treads have the same standards as new ones and also need to pass inspections.
Energy recovery
Recycling tyres for fuel
This is the process of incinerating tires to create fuel – so recycling tires into fuel.
With the manufacturing of cement where the main fuel source is coal, many factories are using old tires as a cheap fuel together with coal, as coal is getting more expensive. Tires are put in the upper part of a cement kiln where it is completely incinerated leaving almost no by-products. Steel mills can also use ELT’s in substituting part of the coal for worn tires.
Pyrolysis
Recycling tyres for fuel/steel
The process of heating up the tires in an oxygen free environment. The tire molecules break down into smaller molecules producing gas or an oily liquid that can be burnt for fuel, hence another way to recycle tires into fuel.
Char is a by-product of pyrolysis and is carbon black remnants which were used to reinforce the tire. Steel is also recovered in this process or when the tire gets shredded first before pyrolysis – recycling the tire’s steel bands.
Ground up tires
Recycling tyres for surfaces
Grinded into rubber crumbs, it can be used as the rubbery surface on running tracks, sports fields, playgrounds and parks. Crumb rubber is being used in asphalt in the making of roads and speed bumps and is superior to normal roads in many ways like having better grip and are more durable.
Railway industry
Recycling Tyres for Industry
Rubber can be used on tracks to reduce noise and vibration. Railway track sleepers can also be made from recycled tires.
Contact sports
Recycling tyres for sport/fitness
In American football and rugby tires are used in fitness by putting them in a zigzag pattern on the ground where the athletes run through it to increase speed and agility.. Sometimes big tires are used where they beat it repeatedly with a hammer or they do tire flipping for strength training.
Rubber powder
Recycling tyres for multiple products
Rubber powder can be used to produce new tires again. Another tire recycling idea is when you take the rubber powder and mix it with latex for carpet backings. It also gets used to make rubber asphalt for road construction. In the shoe industry it is used to make a tougher shoe sole. Rubber products are also used in shoe shine and polish.
Building construction
Recycling tyres for the building industry
Here it has various uses. It is used in walls for insulation or in flooring. Earth-ships is a relatively new term and this is where whole tires are being used to make walls for houses. The old tire gets filled with sand and covered with concrete to make tire bricks.
Whole tires
Recycling tyres for dock and racetrack fenders
Old tires can get used as dock bumpers for the boats. It also serves a purpose at race tracks as a soft barrier for the cars to crash in, or at go kart tracks.
Small products
Recycled rubber is being used to make shoes, waterproof backpacks, mouse pads, belts, door mats just to name a few.
Conclusion
Car tires can be recycled, but the problem with tires is that there is so much of it and ever increasing. Recycling is difficult, because of the tough nature of it and the complicated mix of materials that goes into manufacturing them.
Stockpiling them has various environment and health issues and takes lots of space. Chemicals leach into the groundwater, or tires get filled up with water and serve as a mosquito breeding ground. Vermin also breed here and go looking for food in nearby towns.
Luckily these end of life tires have many uses in many different industries serving as a cheap raw material or fuel and most of the time even superior to other raw materials. Nowadays most of ELT’s get recycled especially in first world countries where tire stockpiling is a problem. Thinking of new inventive ways to recycle tires is an ongoing process with more research getting done and as technology gets better, tire stockpiling might be a problem of the past.
