A report issued by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA), the national trade association for tyre manufacturers in the US, scrap tyre piles in the country have declined by more than 93% in the past two decades.
There are only about 70 million stockpiled scrap tyres remaining to be cleaned up from the more than 1 billion that existed in 1990. Approximately 70% of the remaining yres are stockpiled in just two states – Colorado (31 million) and Texas (17 million). Seven additional states – Arkansas, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington – account for almost 12 million additional stockpiled tyres combined.
A new urgency in cleaning up stockpiled tyres has been seen after the threat of the mosquito-borne Zika virus infection increased in the US. Abandoned tyres are a fertile mosquito breeding ground due to the ability to collect water, retain heat and offer protection from predators.
Anne Forristall Luke, RMA president and CEO, said that RMA’s advocacy for effective state scrap tyre management laws and programmes helped in producing this remarkable environmental success. “Piles have been reduced from more than 1 billion tyres in 1990 to fewer than 70 million today. Equally impressive is that nearly 90% of annually generated scrap tyres are consumed in an end-use market,” she added.
The top end-use markets for tyres include tyre-derived fuel (48%), ground rubber (26%), and civil engineering uses (7%). Tyre-derived fuel or TDF is used primarily by the cement industry and pulp and paper makers as a supplemental fuel due to its high BTU (heat) content. Ground rubber markets include mulch, rubber modified asphalt, sport surfaces such as athletic tracks and some limited use in new tyre manufacturing. Civil engineering uses include tyre aggregate as a replacement fill material for light rail vibration dampening, road embankments and other uses.
“More than two decades of successful scrap tyre management have produced value-added products that today consume more than 200 million tyres annually,” said Forristall Luke. “The dramatic reduction in scrap tyre piles has reduced the threat of significant environmental harm caused when tyre piles catch fire or sit and become mosquito and vermin breeding grounds.”
Now, according to Luke, the ongoing challenge is to maintain the achievements in stockpile reduction and market development as states reassess priorities and budgets. States that become complacent after many years of successful scrap tyre management and shift funds raised from state tyre fees can risk an increase in illegal tyre piles and reduced funding for cleanup of abandoned piles.
“States that have passed laws with dedicated funding need to remain vigilant and protect programmes to prevent a resurgence of scrap tyre problems,” Luke said. “A great deal has been accomplished through working partnerships between state policymakers, recyclers and the tyre manufacturing industry. Our shared goal should be zero stockpiles and a commitment toward a cleaner environment and a vibrant, growing scrap tyre market.”
RMA is a forceful advocate for effective state scrap tyre management programmes that include enforcement authority to regulate the transportation and tracking of scrap tyres, funding to address cleanup of abandoned scrap tyre piles, and support for environmentally and economically sound scrap tyre end-uses.