NEW LCA STUDY
New LCA study shows positive climate and environmental benefits of used tyre recycling for artificial turf pitches
Every year, the total number of promotions increases in motorised vehicles worldwide. Tyres are an essential element for the safety and mobility of cars. Given the variety of materials used in the manufacture of tyres, proper processing or disposal is essential for the safety and mobility of cars. responsible handling of used tyres (end-of-life tyres, ELT) is essential. Today, there are three main channels worldwide for the ELT disposalfrom the lowest rank in the waste hierarchy upwards: Landfilling in landfill sites, incineration, for example in cement works, or material recycling into steel and rubber. The latter is used for artificial turf pitches, for example.
Disposal on Landfills is banned in the EU - but is still widely used elsewhere in the world, posing a fire hazard - and causing health problems,
because puddles of water in the large piles of tyres are perfect breeding grounds for malaria mosquitoes. In addition, all the valuable raw materials in these tyres are simply lost - instead of being recycled. In the EU, the Combustion in cement works is one of the two main channels for the disposal of used tyres. More than 1 million tonnes of tyres are disposed of in the EU every year.
burnt. The advantage is that the calorific value of these tyres is used as a substitute for other fuels. At the same time, however, raw materials are destroyed, which leads to increased
emissions and increased imports of virgin rubber for the production of new rubber products. The most efficient, climate and environmentally friendly way to ensure sound management of ELT is the Recycling by mechanical processing to recover rubber, steel and textiles.
Artificial turf pitches
The main market for the use of rubber granulate from used tyres (ELT) is for use as Infill material in artificial turf pitches - a technology that has been thoroughly tested over the last 20 years and used in the vast majority of European artificial turf pitches (around 75 - 80 %).
It is estimated that currently around 1.7 million tonnes ELT-Infill are in use on more than 17,000 existing pitches in the EU. The basis and reason for this success are the properties of the rubber granules, which ensure both a perfect Resistance as well as a perfect Shock absorption guarantee. The tyre industry has worked for decades to develop this durable and elastic material, and the ball rolls and bounces naturally. Every year in the EU, around 300,000 tonnes ELT bedding granulate is used. The service life of a field with ELT bedding material is estimated to be at least 10 years.
In mechanical recycling, a tyre is reduced to around 75 % rubber, 15 % steel and 10 % textile. refurbished. For a production of 300,000 tonnes ELT infill, must 400,000 tonnes used tyres are processed. With an average weight of 10 kg/tyres and a mix of all tyre types (car tyres, truck tyres, etc.), this corresponds to a total quantity of around 40 million Used tyres that are recycled in the EU into infill granulate for artificial turf.
Climate and environmental benefits of mechanical tyre recycling as opposed to co-incineration
In the EU, political decision-makers can really only choose between Recycling or incineration choose. Tyres that cannot be processed for recycling purposes,
are incinerated instead. Currently, more than 1 million tonnes of tyres are incinerated in the EU every year. The instrument most frequently used by decision-makers to
The evaluation and comparison of climate and environmental alternatives is Life cycle assessment (Life Cycle Assessment, LCA).
Genanthe world's largest Recycling companywhich processes used tyres, has been working with life cycle assessments for more than 10 years. The most recent report, in which the advantages and disadvantages of tyre recycling and incineration were scientifically weighed up, was presented in May 2020 and published by the internationally renowned institutes FORCE (Denmark)
and IFEU (Germany). The report was subsequently peer reviewed by three independent researchers and prepared in accordance with the international standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The report is based on the EU methodology of the ILCD programme for life cycle assessment analyses.
The assumptions (scope) of a life cycle assessment are very important - and are illustrated in the figures above. The focus is on the Use of recycled rubber granulate as infill material in football pitches, where new rubber, EPDM or TPE (SEBS), is substituted; both infill types with comparable effects on play, and which are actually used on the market.
The LCA analysis shows that for every tonne of used tyres that are processed into ELT rubber and used as infill material for artificial turf pitches, 700 kg CO2 equivalents can be saved.
If we consider the current total volume of tyres processed in the EU for use as infill granules in artificial turf fields, i.e. 400,000 tonnes per year, this corresponds to an annual saving of 280,000 tonnes CO2 emissions within the EU.
The report also shows that recycling has significant benefits in a number of other environmental categories compared to incinerating tyres. These include, for example Acidification (terrestrial acidification and acidification of freshwater) and Particle pollution (respiratory inorganics).
What is the alternative for these 40 million tyres if they can no longer be used on artificial turf pitches in the future?
The EU is currently discussing whether the use of ELT rubber granules as infill material in artificial turf pitches should be banned. Today, rubber from used tyres is also used for other purposes as infill material for artificial turf. The Infill market however, is by far the largest and cannot be replaced as there are no mature market alternatives.
Other markets for rubber granules cannot absorb the production currently supplied for artificial turf pitches. If such unsaturated markets existed, the more than 1 million tonnes of tyres currently incinerated in cement plants could be recycled instead. If this is eliminated, it will mean that the volume of tyres incinerated in the EU will increase from around 1 million tonnes to 1.4 million tonnes per year - leading to increased CO2 emissions and other environmental problems.
References:
Life cycle assessment of waste tyre treatments: Material recycling vs. co-incineration in cement kilns, May 2020, FORCE Technology - Charlotte B. Merlin & IFEU - Regine Vogt
ETRMA Press Release: Europe - 92% of all End of Life Tyres collected and treated in 2017, 2019, ETRMA
