Latin America’s first large-tyre recycling plant was inaugurated by Colombian mining company Carbones del Cerrejon Ltd. The facility will export part of its production to other countries in the region and to Asia.
The plant in Albania, a municipality in the northeastern province of La Guajira, has the annual capacity to recycle 2,360 tyres from mining equipment used at Cerrejon’s massive open-pit coal mine, which produces more than 33 million tonnes of thermal coal a year.
Colombia’s Vice President, German Vargas Lleras, headed the inauguration ceremony. He said annual production from the plant will amount to approximately 2,300 tonnes of steel, as well as 5,000 tonnes of crumb rubber that can be used for the new fourth-generation highway network being built in the country. “The rubber component in the asphalt blend provides the roads with optimal safety conditions and will greatly contribute to environmental management,” the vice president added.
Carbones del Cerrejon CEO Roberto Junguito Pombo said the process of recycling large rubber tyres, each of which weighs 3.5 tonnes and is 3.2 m (10.5 ft) in diameter, is “fully mechanical and non-polluting.” The project to generate value from waste arose “with the idea of going the extra mile in terms of environmental management and being an example of sustainable development,” Junguito said.
Cerrejon invested COL$13 billion (Colombian pesos) or around US$4.5 million) to build the plant, with Bancolombia providing the financing and Indutrade Recyling carrying out the construction.
Indutrade Recycling manager Alejandro Aristizabal said that commercial contacts had already been made for exporting the crumb rubber to South Korea, Chile and Brazil.