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Which tyres are to be recovered ?
When tyres are taken off vehicles, they become “part-worn tyres” or
“end of life tyres”.
The part-worn tyre is a tyre, which is reusable, as a second-hand
purchase or re-usable after reprocessing (retreading). It can be
reused as it is for its original purpose when a residual tread depth
remains. In general it is not possible to specify a minimum tread
depth, which would be valid for all types of tyres. Different minimum
legal remaining tread depths are set in different countries. Within
the EU it can be referred the Council Directive 89/459/EEC relating to
the tread depth of tyres of certain categories of motor vehicles and
their trailers.
Otherwise it can be reprocessed under a procedure whereby new tread is
vulcanised on-to the casing and it becomes a retreaded tyre.
The end of life tyre is a non-reusable tyre in its original form. It
enters a waste management system based on product /material recycling,
energy recovery or goes to landfill (2006 at the latest, excluding
tyres used as engineering material and bicycle tyres and tyres with an
outside diameter above 1400 mm): these tyres are to be recovered.
Every year about 3.4 million tonnes of used tyres (part worn + end of
life tyres) are generated in Europe, of which 3 million tonnes are either recycled or recovered.
This amounts to approximately 300 million units.
Update 29 October 2008
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