Technologies for reusing, recycling and energetic valorization of tires in Brazil

Used tires have become a worldwide problem. The discarding of tires rises year after year all over the world. So far little importance has been given to the discarding of tires in many countries. In 1999, the CONAMA (National Council for the Environment) resolution 258/99 made the producer or importer as responsible for the total cycle of the product in Brazil, including the means of collection, transportation and final destination to the product. Since 2002, the manufacturers and importers of tires must collect and give the final destination to the used tires. The distributors, retailers, re-modelers and final consumers are co-responsible for the collection of the used or unserviceable tires. In this study we review the technologies for reusing, recycling and energetic valorization of tires, in addition to presenting a flowchart of the reverse logistic process for new and used tires. Also included are statistical data of distribution channels, recycling goals and final destination for the used tires in the period from 2002 to 2006. In 2006, 240.62 thousand tons of unserviceable tires were recycled, which correspond to 48.12 million of automobile tires. The activities of laminating, grinding and manufacturing of rubber artifacts represented 50.02% of the total; the co-processing in clinker ovens represented 35.73%; the synthetic rubber regeneration represented 13.22% while 1.03% was used in the extraction and treatment of minerals.