PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Rubber ‘crumbs’ from recycled tyres have, until recently, been widely used in children’s playgrounds and sports fields. However, the new 2021 EU REACH Regulation banned the use of rubber containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in these settings. This regulation poses thus challenges in implementing processing routes for spent tyres, and new ways of recycling rubber tyres must be developed to effectively remove harmful chemicals, which would expand the pool of applications for their second life.
OBJECTIVES
The NORUBTREET_4_LIFE preparatory project’s overall objective is to address and mitigate the effects of the restrictions posed by the new REACH Regulation, as concerns the usage of rubber materials from used tyres containing PAHs in children’s playgrounds and sports fields.
To do this, the project aims to prove the technical and market feasibility of a new recycling method (developed by UNIGRO), focusing on tyre treads to be produced with rubber blends obtained from the recycling process. The blends of recycled rubber and virgin material will be then used in the manufacturing of retreaded tyre treads for heavy duty vehicles.
The project aims to design a closed loop, cradle-to-grave recycling process that eliminates PAHs, and that is both technically and financially feasible. Since it is the tread which suffers most from abrasion by the road surface, the new process will focus on tyre treads produced from rubber blends obtained during the recycling process. Nonetheless, the evaluation of all the steps required for obtaining a complete tyre will be fully assessed for the costs and environmental footprint.
The test protocols established to assess the particular matter (PM) emission from the rubber samples, to be used for tyre manufacturing, will serve as a basis to support the preparation of standards and legislation to be introduced in the already existing but not yet complete Euro 7 Standards concerning tyre emissions.
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are:
- design of a closed loop recycling process for used tyres that:
- is fully compliant with the required specific performances and existing legislation
- contain zero PAHs
- reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30%, compared to the emissions released when producing tyre rubber from virgin material
- reduces the manufacturing costs of new tyres by at least 25% thanks to the use of recycled rubber
- monitoring, testing and validating the tyres regarding the elimination of PAHs, dangerous volatile components and airborne particulate matter, which is going to be a regulated parameter in the Euro 7 standard
- assessment of the reduced toxic impact of the novel blends compared to selected benchmarks
- definition of standardised protocols for capturing tyre emissions as part of the Euro 7 standards
- monitoring and evaluation of any genotoxic, inflammatory or endocrine disrupting activity
- development of an original material qualification protocol to guarantee high quality products with reduced toxicological and emission impacts
NORUBTREET_4_LIFE expects to make ‘clean and green’ materials, compatible with the new REACH Regulation, available to the tyre industry by the end of the project. However, the competitive advantage of using these materials will depend to a large extent on the update of implementing standards and certifications in line with recommendations issued by the project.
