May 13, 2016. In Seseña, a town located between Toledo and Madrid, famous for the housing development made by 'El Pocero', alarms go off because there has been a fire in a tire dump. The dense smoke, harmful and black, makes the entire population evacuate and Castilla-La Mancha and the Community of Madrid activate the alert levels. The day before yesterday, on the island of El Hierro a fire broke out in which the tires were once again the protagonists of a dense cloud of black smoke.
Fortunately, the treatment of used tires has been regulated in Spain since 2005. The Government took a further step on Thursday with the modification of Royal Decree 1619/2005, of December 30, by which all replacement tires, except for of bicycles, become the object of reuse or recycling. The new text prohibits "the landfilling of large tires, with a diameter greater than 1,400 millimeters", and provides "for their incorporation into the management system under the extended responsibility of the producer."
Only bicycle tires can be thrown away, because they are considered municipal waste. The rest of the out-of-use rubber wheels are introduced into the circular economy through recycling, which must be carried out by the tire manufacturer through the so-called Expanded Producer Responsibility (RAP).
From the sector, through Signius , the Collective Management System for End of Life Tires, celebrate the obligation to recycle large tires. "This measure will undoubtedly be a guarantee for a correct environmental management of large tires and that at present, in some cases, were not managed correctly when appearing in abandoned stockpiles, with the corresponding negative environmental impact that this entails" .
From Signius the legal security that the modification of the royal decree will give to producers is valued. "Now the producer is obliged to manage, as many times as necessary, the end-of-life tires that were put up for sale by him in the replacement market. A modification that grants legal certainty to the obligations of the producers."
At the same time, with the step taken by the Ecological Transition, a surveillance and control mechanism is created for those companies that put replacement tires on the market and do not correctly manage the waste generated.
The Ministry also argues "that the collection and management responsibilities corresponding to the collective systems of extended producer responsibility will be defined for each autonomous community, which will avoid accumulation problems and delays in the collection of waste at the generation points" . It's about preventing tires from ending up in a garbage container.
Signius explains that "the majority of citizens change their tires in an official establishment and leave the old ones there so that the workshop can take care of the management of those old wheels." In fact, there is no established fine for a person who throws a tire, since the responsibility for its treatment falls on the companies dedicated to its replacement.
Moreover, if you go to a Clean Point to deposit an old tire, you will find that there is no specific container for recycling. Hence, the modification of the rule includes the possibility that a citizen takes end-of-life tires to these places and that they be collected by designated groups for recycling or transferred to an Authorized Treatment Center.
The replacement tire market in Spain remains stable, although this year it will fall due to the pandemic. In 2019, 16,490,230 units were placed on the market, compared to 16,442,582 in 2018. There is no data on how many of them are withdrawn, because their treatment is carried out in tons. In 2018, 196,131 tons were managed for reuse, compared to 188,631 in 2019. A decrease as a result of the fall in the economy.
Of this volume, 51.7% was used for other materials, 11.7% became second-life tires; and the remaining 36% went to energy valuation. In this last aspect, it stands out that 66,226 tons of end-of-life tires went to cement plants to form part of the clinker; while the remaining 2,717 tons generated electricity.
And beyond their energy reuse, 57.7% of vehicle tires were turned into artificial turf for soccer fields and for private housing plots. Thanks to the reconversion of the tires, children no longer play on sand in the parks, but on rubber padded surfaces that eliminate annoying scratches.
Better new tires than used for passenger cars
One of the controversial aspects of the Royal Decree is that there is talk of a second use of them. This is very common in large truck, bus and agricultural machinery tires, where retreading extends the life of the tires. But this technique does not apply to those intended for passenger cars. Of course, the use of a second-use tire is not prohibited.
From the Tire Manufacturers Commission , which brings together the main manufacturers, such as Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear, Michelin and Pirelli , it is encouraged that new tires be chosen to replace the old ones, and not the used ones. "Among the aspects that should discourage your purchase, it stands out above all that the level of safety of used tires is lower. The reason is that the use they have been given while they were rolling with another car is unknown. In addition, visits to the workshop they multiply. If, for example, with new tires you have to go every 50,000 km, with a 5 mm tread you would have to go every 26,500 km ", argues the Commission.
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