Energy recovery, sports amenity flooring, manufactured articles and components, rubber articles, acoustic insulation for the construction industry and low noise asphalt surfacing. This is the second life which tyres can have, in other words once they are old and used, tyres can be transformed and re-used when they have reached the end of their life on cars. The 2011-2020 sustainability report published by Ecopneus, one of the main consortia in Italy for the tracking, collection, processing and recovery of old and used tyres, helps us understand how fundamental the commitment of the entire supply chain is to making the tyre industry increasingly circular too. Ecopneus, which comprises the main tyre manufacturers operating in Italy, including Pirelli, manages about 60% of those generated each year in the country.
According to the Sustainability Report presented in June 2021, from 2011 to today, Ecopneus has managed over 2.2 million tonnes of old and used tyres - 130 thousand tonnes more than the legal objectives (+6% on average each year) - and carried out more than 700 thousand collection missions from about 25 thousand registered tyre specialists all over Italy, with an extraordinary commitment for the work done in historical stocks and for the extraordinary collection of abandoned old and used tyres in various parts of Italy, making up a total of 87 thousand tonnes of collected old and used tyres.
Tracking and disposing of tyres is a time-consuming and laborious process, which is made possible thanks to the “environmental contribution”, a small amount included in the purchase price of tyres devised precisely to ensure that the tyres, once removed from the car, are introduced into the correct and sustainable recycling and disposal process.
The numbers presented by Ecopneus and the new life of tyres that are transformed into common materials and everyday objects are a great application example of the circular economy, in other words the “Cradle to Cradle” approach, aimed at the continuous regeneration of various materials which represents the future of industry and the ideal model of the sustainable production process.
This approach, for the recovery of old and used tyres, is also something which Pirelli is working on. The industrial plan presented by the company in March 2021 sets the sustainability targets for the entire product life cycle, for a constant reduction in the environmental resources used, especially when these are not renewable according to a “Circular Economy” model based on the 5Rs: “Re-think, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. In particular, Pirelli's Research and Development department constantly monitors the growing opportunities for the use (in ever greater shares) of recycled materials. The development of innovative technologies for the production of recycled old and used tyre materials, such as the powder obtained by grinding the tyre, or the carbon black obtained through pyrolysis of the tyre, allows it to be used in increasing proportions without compromising performance or safety, ensuring the development and production of increasingly sustainable tyres.
