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Why Serbia is better than USA in tire recycling – Only 500 tonnes of scrap tires have been discarded in landfills in ten years
Source: eKapija
Sunday, 16.04.2023.
20:42
Sunday, 16.04.2023.
20:42
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(Photo: Tyler Olson/shutterstock.com)
According to the data collected by the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), in the 2011-2021 period, 360,000 tonnes of tires have been placed on the market, doubling the annual amount from 23,000 tonnes in 2011 to almost 44,000 tonnes in 2021. During the same period around 500,00 tonnes of scrap tires have been taken care of, and almost all of it has been treated according to the law, whereas a negligible amount, about 500 tonnes have been discarded at landfill sites.
At the same time, according to some reports, nearly a quarter of all scrap tires in the world end up at landfills. Different researches show that the number of tires being dumped in landfills reaches 1.8 billion at an annual level. And this is the situation not only in underdeveloped countries but in countries like USA as well. Does that mean that Serbia does a better job in this field? Do the data hide something? How does tire recycling work in Serbia? Have recyclers resolved issues with the state government? How far is Serbia from building playgrounds and sport pitches from recycled tires? These are some of the questions that eKapija portal investigated.
Landfilling tires is prohibited
Scrap tires are treated as a separate waste stream, together with batteries, car batteries, waste oils, electrical waste because they require specific management procedures from the site of origin, collection, transport and treatment. It takes 50 to 80 years for a tire to completely decompose in a landfill, so the Regulation on Waste Disposal bans discarding old car tires in landfills.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency`s official “Report on waste management in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2011 – 2021”, 438 tonnes of scrap tires have been discarded in this period, although there is neither data for the 2011-2015, nor for 2017. We haven`t been able to get the information from the EPA why the data on the amount of tires being discarded and the amount being burned in these years hasn`t been collected, because the Agency hasn`t answered our questions.
The Secretary General of the Recyclers Association of Serbia, Marko Vucenovic says that according to the official data, around 500 tonnes of scrap tires have been discarded in landfills in the 2011-2021 period. If the average weight of a car tire is 10 kg, then around 5,000 tires are discarded in landfills each year. This number is certainly a bit lower since large tires also add up to the total amount. The exact number is still unspecified because according to the Law on Charges on Usage of Public Goods, since 2019, tire producers submit a report on used tires measured in kilograms and not by piece.
Vucenovic explains for eKapija that the growth trend in amount of tires being placed on the Serbian market is partly the result of increased demand, that is, the increased use of tires and in part because of the increase in the number of business entities that comply with their legal obligations and regularly submit reports to the SEPA.
– Unfortunately, a small portion of used tires still ends up outside of the legal channels and is discarded in landfills without regulation, thus posing a significant risk to the environment and the public health, Vucenovic says.
Still, Serbia is ahead is this field compared to many other countries. The report from the World Business Council For Sustainable Development, shows that there were four million tires in landfills around the world in 2022. The “underachievers” included Nigeria and Argentina where more than 90% of tires end up discarded, Russia (80%), Mexico (79.7%), South Africa (75.1), China (61%), shows the data published in the science magazine Tire and Rubber Recycling in October 2022. The data from the US Environmental Protection Agency shows that USA isn`t doing that great since, annually, a quarter out of 250 million end-of-life tires in the USA ends up in landfills.
This data doesn`t surprise our interviewee. According to him, when it comes to waste management of scrap tires, as well as waste from electrical and electronic equipment, Serbia is at the forefront in Europe and in the world. The reasons for this can be found in the latest equipment as well as in the treatment financing system based on the “polluter pays” principle.
– When we talk about waste management, the situation in Serbia is often made to look worse than it actually is, meaning that the situation in some other parts of the world is being idealized, which is far from the truth. Hyperproduction creates great challenges for all systems. There are many types of waste for which there are neither sustainable solutions, nor options for treatment. Our country tries hard to build comprehensive waste management system, but there already are several streams where we have been at the forefront for a while now, primarily waste tires, and electrical and electronic waste as well, Vucenovic points out.
Tyre recycling creates rubber granulate (Photo: Unsplash/David Edelstein)
Our operators have the latest equipment in this part of the continent and the capacity to process even bigger amounts than what is currently being generated and collected, our interviewee reveals. This equipment allows them to process all types and dimensions of pneumatic tires from passenger and cargo vehicles to agricultural and construction machinery, including the largest tires out there – damping tires, 3.6 meters in diameter and 2,600 kg in weight.
– Only tires that contain a thick metal section cannot be recycled as well as those that are in such a poor state due to wear and tear that they can`t produce an acceptable quality recyclate, which is why they are used for energy purposes, Vucenovic explains.
How the system functions
The Rulebook on the manner and procedure of waste tire management says that waste tire treatment options include the recycling of waste tires and their use for energy purposes. At least 80% of the total amount of waste tires collected in the previous year should be recycled, and not more than 20% used for energy purposes
There are a dozen waste tire recycling plants in Serbia. Pneumatic tires are collected through a network established by the recyclers. Tires from tire-repairs shops, pneumatic tire producers and distributors and from agricultural properties are also brought to tire recycling centers. As our interviewee explains, the tire recycling system is quite complex and aside from operators, it also includes the whole chain of collectors and employs over 15,000 people.
– Pneumatic tires are broken down into basic components – rubber, steel and textile, without impacting the physical and chemical properties of these components. Steel wires are transferred to foundries, so they go back into the production process and can also be used as micro-reinforcements in construction, as they have properties that are usually better than the conventional solutions. Textiles can be used for insulation, but that area is still under research. The other option for textiles is to be used as an alternative fuel, mostly in cement factories, our interviewee explains.
Recycled tires are used in surfaces for sport pitches and playgrounds (Photo: Shutterstock/Mikel Guerra)
The most common material created in tire recycling is rubber granulate (crumb rubber) which can be found in a number of industries, from being used in surfaces for sport pitches and playgrounds, floor insulation materials and traffic signalization to asphalt. It is a huge source of materials considering the amount of tires produced – according to the IMARC Group global report, there were 2.3 billion tires produced in 2022. It is estimated that in 2028 there will be 2.7 billion tires produced. As per Vucenovic, in Serbia, around dozen companies regularly use crumb rubber and another dozen companies use it sporadically.
– A part of the total amount of crumb rubber produced is being exported to Hungary, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, and seldom to Croatia, Romania and Slovenia too. The general revenue would increase with the higher level of final processing, that is, with the rise of production and use of final products, Vucenovic says.
Who finances waste tires treatment – In Serbia “polluter pays”
Who is paying for the management of the end-of-life tires? There is no uniform system. In the US, customers pay a disposal fee per every tire sold, which ranges from one to several dollars per tire, depending on the state. Most European countries have implemented the extended producer responsibility, a few countries have a free market system (Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the UK) which means that operators make contracts under free market conditions but the system doesn`t designate those responsible and the least prominent (in Denmark and Croatia) is the tax system, under which the country is responsible for the management of end-of-life tires, which in turn is financed through taxes.
In Serbia, the treatment of scrap tires is financed by applying the “polluter pays” principle, which means that producers and importers of materials and items that later become specific streams of waste pay the waste fees, which finance the waste management system. Despite the past operational issues, the system is much improved now. As our interviewee explains, the confusions arose regarding incentives.
– The use of this term maybe made sense when the system was first set up, however, it`s not actually about incentives or subventions, but funding the management of waste by applying the “polluter pays” principle. In the meantime, the institutional framework has been additionally disrupted and the designated purpose of the money that the government makes revenue from has been invalidated, which is why we went through a decade-long crisis that at one point threatened to shut down the operators for management of special waste streams, Vucenovic reminds.
Our interviewee explains that everything changed in 2021 when the government started to regularly settle its obligations toward the operators. Since 2022, that obligation is carried out quarterly, providing stability and business predictability to our operators.
– This has resulted in the record amounts of treated waste as well as the increase in the number of employees by 9%. The incentives for reuse and use of scrap tires as secondary raw materials amount to RSD 18,390 per tonne and the incentives for treating scrap tires to produce fuel amount to RSD 3,606 per tonne. One mustn`t forget that over one million euros need to be invested in adequate infrastructure and equipment for collecting and processing waste tires and that the already high costs of electricity, fuel, maintenance and spare parts as well as workforce have been continually rising in the past couple of years, Vucenovic states.
He reminds that collecting is the first step in waste management, and that this process needs to see involvement from the local self-governments too.
– The new investment cycle should result in the construction of all regional waste management and waste collection centers which is especially significant because it allows that all special waste streams generated in households enter the legal procedures and are taken care of by our operators in the manner prescribed by law. But in order to establish a comprehensive waste management system, the subjects responsible, namely the units of local self-government, need to fulfill their legal obligations, Vucenovic says.
“Tire graveyards” in the third-world countries
As with other waste streams, here we encounter a problem with exporting waste to countries with fewer capacities to manage waste properly. The EU Landfill Directive from 2003 bans discarding tires in landfills (bicycle tires being an exception). According to some data, only 9% of used tires end up in landfills. That being said, this doesn`t prevent these countries to export used tires to other countries.
Discarding tires in landfills is banned in the EU since 2003 (Photo: wiklander/shutterstock.com)
The chief executive of Norwegian waste tire recycling business Wastefront AS, Vianney Vales told Forbes the most “mainstream solution” for tire recycling still remains incineration, with a large percentage of used tires ending up being burned in energy-from-waste plants. He pointed out that countries like the UK still export tires to countries like India and Turkey, where you can’t really control what is happening and they are either incinerated, dumped in landfill, or end up in “tire graveyards”.
The European Recycling Industries` Confederation (EuRIC) warned that an additional 50 million tires could either end up being indefinitely stockpiled in Europe or exported outside the EU for dumping if the European Commission adopts the proposed legislation that prohibits adding rubber granulates created in the recycling process in the artificial sport pitches. According to the current proposition, the EU would reclassify rubber infill as intentionally added microplastic which would essentially prohibit their use in artificial sports pitches and lead to excess waste tire.
The consequences of storing tires in landfills, where they can easily catch fire, are numerous.
– These kinds of fires generate byproducts that are extremely harmful to the environment. The likely, uncontrolled tire fires, which are very hard to put down, emit all kinds of gaseous pollutants as well as solid waste materials. The incomplete tire combustion at combustion temperatures below 700° C creates polychlorinated furans and dioxins as well as liquid pollutants from melting tires that seep into the soil and can cause real damage if they get into surface and ground waters. That`s why local self-government units and their public utility companies need to make an additional effort to treat all waste generated in a proper manner, Vucenovic warns.
The pollution problem might be solved with the so-called green tires that more and more producers are offering. Smaller weight, lower rolling resistance, improved fuel efficiency and lower noise levels are some of the features of these tires. Some producers, like Goodyear, announced that by 2030 they will be producing tires from 100% sustainable materials. Others, like Bridgestone, are experimenting with plants as an alternative tire material.
Marija Dedic
Tags:
Environmental Protection Agencies
Recyclers Association of Serbia
Marko Vucenovic
tire recycling
waste tires
green tires
rubber granulate
export of waste tires
tire graveyards
treatment of waste tires
waste tires treatment facility
Rulebook on manner and procedure of waste tire management
damping tires
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