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Karina Potarsky: “We have shared knowledge about the importance of the activity to extend the useful life of tyres, which has as a direct consequence the reduction of consumption of new tyres.”
the South and Central American region in pursuit of the fo- llowing ideals:
- To assist them on the road to achieving their objectives by liaising with regional and other continental colleagues.
- To work together with the Latin American Association of the Tyre Retreading Segment (ALARNEU) to make their con- tribution to the region more visible.
- To strengthen and enhance tyre retreading activity by faci- litating access to training, conferences, seminars, and trade fairs to help professionalise and to technify the sector.
According to Potarsky and Bertalot, a clear example of the Subcommittee’s attempts to achieve the points mentioned above was represented by the panel of experts entitled “Tyre Retreading in Latin America” made up of representatives of the activity from different countries, such as: Mauricio Laba- die (Uruguay), Eduardo Acosta (Chile), Milton Facio (Brazil), Santiago Avellán (Ecuador), Elsie Álvarez Monge (Costa Rica),

Natalia Figueira (Argentina) and Mr Otto Trujillo (Guatema- la). This panel discussion took place within the framework of the second Latin American Tyre Recycling Conference held in 2021, informing and discussing the retreadability indices in some countries of the region, the impact of COVID 19 on activity, the safety of retreaded tyres compared to new ones, recommendations on tyre care in daily use, news in the re- treading industry, rules and regulations of the activity in the witness countries, and the quality standards to be used in re- treading plants.
Many of these topics are also covered in various technical articles in the “Tyre Recycling” section of SLTCaucho maga- zine, including “From used to end-of-life tyres” and “Safety of a retreaded tyre vs. a new one” by Mr Eduardo Acosta (Chi- le), Ms Elsie Álvarez Monge (Costa Rica), Ms Natalia Figueira (Argentina) and Mr Otto Trujillo (Guatemala). Another article that helped to broaden knowledge and reduce false beliefs about retreading was “Tyre Renovation: the origin of myths”, where Eduardo Acosta (Chile) narrates some beliefs about this activity, such as when it is labelled as unsafe or of poor quality.
Says Potarsky: “In the various meetings that we have held among the members of the Tyre Retreading Subcommittee, we have shared knowledge about the importance of the ac- tivity to extend the useful life of tyres, which has as a direct consequence the reduction of consumption of new tyres, a reduction in CO2 emissions, the consumption of less oil, and the production of less end-of-life tyres. This demonstrates the importance of this industry in the tyre life cycle.
Now, post-pandemic, Potarsky and Bertalot are continuing to work on the dissemination and spread of the latest techni- cal, scientific, regulatory, and institutional developments of the SLTC’s activity. Currently, they are preparing for the III Jornadas Latinoamericanas de Reciclaje de Neumáticos (III edition of the Latin American Tire Recycling Conference), which will take place in Lima, Peru, on September 20, 21 and 22, 2023.
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