Beyond burning.There is a lot of good news coming out of the recent tire recycling Tire recycling is the process of recycling vehicles tires (or tyres) that are no longer suitable for use on vehicles due to wear or irreparable damage (such as punctures). report issued by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (pg. 11). The most obvious is that in 2003, 80% of the scrap tires went to an end use market. In 1990, only 11% were not landfilled. The report also shows that the amount of stockpiled scrap tires has been reduced by nearly 75% since 1990. What the tire industry has accomplished in the span of 15 years is quite remarkable, and much of the credit belongs to the RMA (RealMedia Architecture) See RealMedia. who made recycling a priority. Considering that this country recycles 28% of its waste, a number that has doubled in the last 15 years, tires rank at the top of recycled materials. Recycling rates of other materials show that 57% of all steel packaging; 55% of aluminum cans; 42% of all paper; and 40% of all plastic soft drink bottles were recycled last year. What is even more encouraging is that even though the burning of tires for fuel increased 12%, its growth rate is slowing, and other markets are growing. While burning is an effective way to reduce scrap tire numbers, it is the least desirable end use for these highly engineered products. Even though tire derived fuel produces slightly more heating value The heating value or calorific value of a substance, usually a fuel or food, is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The calorific value is a characteristic for each substance. than coal, with similar emissions, burning tires for fuel reclaims only a small portion of the energy to produce a tire. A recent study estimates that it takes 32 kilowatt hours Kil´o`watt` hour 1. (Elec.) A unit of work or energy equal to that done by one kilowatt acting for one hour; - approximately equal to 1.34 horse-power hour. Noun 1. per kilogram kilogram, abbr. kg, fundamental unit of mass in the metric system, defined as the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram, a platinum-iridium cylinder kept at Sèvres, France, near Paris. of synthetic robber to manufacture a tire and 25 kwh to produce a tire robber compound. The thermal energy thermal energy Internal energy of a system in thermodynamic equilibrium (see thermodynamics) by virtue of its temperature. A hot body has more thermal energy than a similar cold body, but a large tub of cold water may have more thermal energy than a cup of boiling released when incinerating a scrap tire is 9 kwh, and 1.2 kwh is consumed in the grinding process to prepare for the incinerator incinerator, furnace for burning refuse. The older and simpler kind of incinerator was a brick-lined cell with a metal grate over a lower ash pit, with one opening in the top or side for loading and another opening in the side for removing incombustible masses called . Also, burning the tire eliminates any further recycling. Expanding the markets for recycled robber has been a tough sell, but appears to be gaining. Ground rubber reuse consumed more than 28 million scrap tires in 2003, ending up in athletic and recreational surfaces, along with the expanded use of rubber modified asphalt. Civil engineering uses have grown 41% since 2001. Approximately 45 million scrap tires are used annually to make 24.5 million auto and truck tires. Burning was a perfect solution for the mounting stockpiles of discarded tires, but it's now time to work on the other markets that show promise. |
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