The largest tire dump in the world

In many European countries, it is illegal to discard used tires by law. Car tires are compounds of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and carcinogenic substances with a high level of toxicity. However, in the UK alone, the number of used car shoes is 55 million annually. The European Union found a way out – it was decided to send used tires for recycling. About 480 thousand tons are given new life every year. But this is only a small part of all waste of rubber products.

MORE DETAILS: PLANT FOR PROCESSING WASTE OF RUBBER PRODUCTS AND POLYMERS by pyrolysis method without harm to the environment.

Not all over the world do this. For example, in Kuwait there is a landfill where more than 7 million tires are stored, to which tires are brought even from neighboring countries.

However, a larger dump of old tires existed in the United States. The history of its creation is quite unique. In the middle of the 20th century, American Ed Filbing decided that old tires could cost a lot of money and began collecting them. For 30 years, he collected 42 million tires, which were dumped in one big pile near Highway 5, not far from California. In the late 1980s, he sold all of his tires to private entrepreneurs who decided to make money from it and built a plant to convert tires into electricity. This in turn immediately attracted the attention of the authorities, who were unhappy with the amount of smoke polluting the air. The technology turned out to be not environmentally friendly, unfortunately. At the end of 1989, lightning struck the landfill, which caused a fire that did not stop for a month. So millions of tires burned out without being melted into electricity. Ed Philbing got excited about the idea to start collecting used tires again, but learned from sad experience, the authorities stopped his attempt this time, attributing to him several lawsuits.

From all of the above, it can be concluded that taking tires to landfills and storing them outdoors is not a safe way. And not only because of the likelihood of an accidental fire, which can spread to nearby settlements, and burning, carrying toxic substances.

 If you list all the consequences of storing tires, then the list will be impressive:

• Car tires made of styrene-butadiene rubber release 20 grams of plastic dust every 100 km that the car passes.
• The discharged dust is highly toxic, the inhalation of which contributes to the development of cancer.
• The content of chemicals in the diffused microparticles is much higher than in the exhaust gases of an automobile engine.
• At high air temperatures, highly toxic compounds are also released. For this reason, it is highly discouraged to place tires on playgrounds and sports grounds, lawns, and garden plots.
• During the burning of tires, soot and sulfurous acid are released.
• Discarded car tires pollute the environment, water, soil, as the toxins and carcinogenic substances are washed out by groundwater.
• Used tires decompose for over 100 years. At the same time, complete utilization, as we are accustomed to believe, does not happen. If the tire is not recycled in the process of pyrolysis, then in the ecosystem of complete decomposition, disappearance, dissolution of the rubber product cannot be. Decomposition into smaller nanoparticles occurs, which are measured in tenths and hundredths of a millimeter.
• The basic law of nature is the circulation of substances. Everything that was once produced does not disappear anywhere, but can only change its shape.
• The more rubber and polymeric substances are produced, the more they remain in the ecosystem, possibly in other shapes or sizes.

Further ignoring the problems of utilizing highly toxic waste and creating resource-saving technologies will eventually lead to irreparable environmental consequences.

At this point, it is becoming very clear that burying, burning or self-disposal of tires cannot solve the problem without causing damage to the environment.

Nowadays, there are two approaches to recycling old tires. The first is to turn tires into crumbs, then metal components are sent for remelting, and rubber crumbs are used as an ingredient for road surfaces; it can also be used to create new tires, rubber shoes, hoses, and more. Only this approach cannot be considered environmentally friendly, because as mentioned above, highly toxic compounds are released at high temperatures, which is extremely harmful in the production of coatings for stadiums, grounds, etc.

When using the second method, namely pyrolysis, the raw material decomposes without air access to liquid fuel, carbon black, gas and steel cord. The pyrolysis technology belongs to ecological options, because in the natural environment tires decompose for a century and a half, polluting the air and soil with toxins.

MORE DETAILS: PLANT FOR PROCESSING WASTE OF RUBBER PRODUCTS AND POLYMERS by pyrolysis method without harm to the environment.

Every day of storage of tires in landfills or their burial carries with it a danger to the health and life, both of each individual person and the existence of everything about society as a whole, as well as the conservation of the ecosystem and natural diversity. Everyone can contribute to our future by recycling tires safely.

Pyrolysis is an alternative way to obtain heat and electrical energy without harmful effects on the environment. Thus, your old tires delivered to special services can be recycled in a very civilized way: using an environmentally friendly and cost-effective method.