In parts of Europe, casing recovery is increasingly challenged by the export of tyres to non-European markets, says Gawronski, a logistics and handling equipment company. This impacts all European countries somewhat, but it is a particular issue in the UK and Germany. Both are large-scale free markets where brokers and dealers proliferate in collecting tyres for export, often illegally to markets abroad.
Retread Casing Solutions
This can mean that retreadable casings might never reach the retreader, instead ending up on the roads in overseas markets. Recently, at the UK Tyre Recycling Association Forum, Rajiv Budhraja, Director General of India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturer’s Association, told delegates that up to 15 per cent of the Indian tyre market was taken by imported waste tyres being put on vehicles in the country, from the UK alone that is around 500,000 “serviceable” casings taken out of the market.
EPR agencies such as Aliapur have collection services and a valorisation process that ostensibly ensures that tyres are recovered and put to their best use, with retreading at the top of the tree. However, in the UK and Germany, it is all about disposing of tyres as quickly as possible, and in the current climate, it is often cheaper to bale and export than to shred for challenging markets.
One solution is for the retreaders to collect the tyres themselves. Gawronski is offering a container collection service for retreaders. The concept is simple. The casings are placed in the container by the tyre shop; when they are full, they are collected and replaced by a new container.
The container goes directly to the retreader. The retreader then valorises the tyres and can take the premium casings for their use, sell the others through the recycling chain, or even simply bale them and put them to export.
A simple solution to ensure that retreaders control the supply of casings in the face of ever more present brokers indiscriminately exporting waste tyres.
