Page 36 - RB-105-2023-2
P. 36
Stephan Rau: “I am confident that this international award will give us momentum to achieve our mission of reusing or recycling 100 percent of tyres.”
Tyre Recycling. In addition to numerous appearances at industry events, a highly productive Annual highly deserved win at the launch of the 2023 Recircle Awards in Singapore.
On March 8, Allianz Zukunft Reifen (AZuR) was announced as the winner of the 2023 Recircle Award in the Circular Economy category at TyreXpo Asia 2023 in Singapore. With the internationally renowned prize, AZuR’s commitment to tyre retreading was recognised in particular.
The Recircle Award was personally presented to AZuR Network coordinator Christina Guth and Stephan Rau (Technical Director of the WdK and AZuR patron) by David Wilson, Publisher of Retreading Business.
Christina Guth acknowledged the Recircle Award as an ”award for all AZuR partners from industry, trade and scien- ce and the culmination of our joint commitment to a sustai- nable circular tyre economy.”
In the laudatory speech, AZuR’s commitment to sustaina- ble tyre recycling in Germany and more and more Europe- an countries over the past three years was acknowledged. In particular, Wilson emphasised ”the rapid growth of the network, which is unique in the world, and the preparation
of an ecological assessment of retreading that was long overdue.”
The award follows AZuR’s presentation in September 2022 of a comprehensive life cycle assessment for car and com- mercial vehicle tyres achieved with the support of the Ger- man Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU).
The life cycle assessment drawn up by the Fraunhofer Insti- tute UMSICHT makes it clear that qualitatively retreaded branded tyres require around 50 percent less energy in pro- duction and cause over 60 percent less CO2 than compara- ble new tyres with comparable performance, while saving natural resources and avoiding waste.
According to the life cycle assessment, retreaded car ty- res are also ahead of comparable new tyres in the overall CO2 balance (mileage 20,000 km/40,000 km). This makes retreads the perfect circular economy product.
Stephan Rau also sees the Recircle Award in the Circular
P.36