University at Buffalo (UB), in the US, helps address the issue of waste tires with the UB RENEW Institute which will work on a multidisciplinary study of the tire recycling industry.
The work is funded by a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) grant worth a quarter of a million dollars. The partnership builds upon the state’s 2003 Waste Tire Management and Recycling Act, which mandated market development for waste tires, prohibited land burial of these tires, and instituted a recycling fee on each new tire sold in the state to fund the cleanup of noncompliant tire waste stockpiles, among other activities.
RENEW Institute Director and SUNY Distinguished Professor Amit Goyal said:
“The project is well-aligned with RENEW’s mission to bring together teams of multidisciplinary faculty to focus on complex issues related to energy and the environment.” He added: “RENEW’s overall goal to enable a regenerative economy includes improving recycling of all materials.”
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos notes that New York residents and businesses generate up to 20 million waste tires each year, and to achieve the state’s environmental sustainability goals “we must find productive reuses of the materials.”
Seggo explains:
“DEC has already taken effective actions to address illegal tire stockpiles that created threats to public health and the environment, but we must do more to strengthen tire recycling markets and infrastructure.” He added: “We welcome this newest partnership with UB to help reduce an abundant and challenging waste stream and recycle tires in an economically and environmentally beneficial way.”
DEC and UB will explore different options for the beneficial use of whole tires and tire byproducts other than refurbishing these tires for reuse on vehicles or use as fuel to be burned in power plants, paper mills and other facilities. UB will inventory and evaluate existing data, assess the current supply and demand for various forms of tire rubber in New York and across the U.S., and evaluate methods to improve waste-tire recycling infrastructure and the marketability of secondary tire-based materials and products.
In addition, UB will evaluate policy options that may be appropriate to promote waste-tire rubber marketability and develop recycling markets for waste tires in New York. This project is funded by the state’s Waste Management and Cleanup Account, which is supported by the state’s tire recycling fee.