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Goodyear: Scrap-Tire Recovery Surpasses Other Materials' Recycling Rates

21 April 2000

Goodyear: Scrap-Tire Recovery Surpasses Other Materials' Recycling Rates

    AKRON, Ohio, April 19 Scrap tires are virtually everywhere
-- from the asphalt on the road to the resilient playground surface protecting
children from harm to the fuel source that generates electricity.
    That's because significant gains have been made in the environmentally
sound management and disposal of scrap tires, according to Terry Noteboom,
senior environmental engineer for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
    Today the scrap-tire recovery/reuse rate surpasses the more-heralded
recycling rate of glass, aluminum or paper, Noteboom said.
    In 1999, scrap-tire management systems captured more than 71 percent of
the 272 million scrap tires generated in the United States.  This far exceeds
1998 recovery rates, the most recent available, of 63.5 percent for aluminum
cans, 44.8 percent for paper and 37.9 percent for glass.
    "These statistics demonstrate that the industry is doing a good job of
capturing and beneficially recycling scrap tires," Noteboom said.  "Goodyear
believes that product stewardship extends beyond when consumers are finished
using its products."
    The company recognized years ago that scrap tires have certain qualities
that limit their disposal and recyclability.  Because tires and rubber
products in general are not biodegradable, Goodyear environmental engineers
have accepted the challenge to seek and develop scrap tire management options
as part of the company's corporate culture.
    "Currently, energy recovery provides the best opportunity to resolve the
scrap-tire issue, and it is in use throughout North America and Europe,"
Noteboom said.
    Scrap tires are used as a supplemental fuel by cement, electricity and
paper producers, and their combustion reduces solid waste and air emissions.
The added fuel source also decreases the nation's dependency on foreign oil
supplies and conserves precious natural resources. Throughout the United
States, many of these manufacturing installations have been modified with
tire-feed systems.
    In addition, ground-tire rubber is used in many varied civil engineering
applications, such as asphalt paving, injury-reducing playground surfaces and
as a soil amendment, for example in the Detroit Lions football team's new
practice field.
    During the past 20 years, Goodyear has developed a number of uses for
whole scrap tires, including floating breakwaters, tire reefs, crash barriers
and playground equipment, Noteboom said.  "Although projects of this type
reuse scrap tires, demand for them remains pretty static and simply is not
growing."
    During the second half of the 1990s, Goodyear researchers discovered,
refined and patented a process to devulcanize rubber from cured products, such
as tires, belts and hoses.  The patent, which was granted in April 1999, uses
an environmentally friendly solvent that is, itself, recyclable. In tests
conducted on a laboratory scale, more than 90 percent of the material was
recovered while keeping the microstructure intact.  The company is determining
the feasibility of increasing the process to a commercial scale, and the
discovery's economic viability.
    Noteboom said Goodyear began focusing intense efforts toward the scrap-
tire challenge in 1989 -- when approximately 10 percent of the scrap tires in
the United States were utilized in some constructive manner.
    Goodyear fostered the formation of the Scrap Tire Management Council and
began development of scrap tire management systems.  Several years ago, the
company led a pioneering effort into the chemical decomposition using heat,
called pyrolysis, of scrap tires, and although the project was technically
successful, it was not financially feasible.
    Goodyear also produced reclaim rubber and Micron rubber, both finely
ground material suitable for use as filler in floor mats, rubber railroad
crossing, dock bumpers, belt covers and miscellaneous products.