TIRES & WHEELS
TIRES & WHEELS
Simple Story About Tire Dust, Recycled Rubber & Your Tires
BY JEFFREY PARKS
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ires wear down, all tires, on your truck and your car. But this story isn’t about the tire dust that winds up on the roads and in the air. This is about the tire dust that we keep away from the air and from the environment by riding on retreads. You already know about the economic benefits of retreads, but there are many more, including en-
vironmental advantages. The process of retreading creates a very interesting byproduct called rubber buffings, and these buffings are used in a variety of manufactured recycled rubber products. During retreading the worn tread layer of a tire is ground, or buffed away, to be replaced by a new layer of tread rubber, but that layer of buffing still has a life ahead of it. Once the used tire casing has had all of its old tread buffed and ground away, there is quite a decent amount of waste buffings that come off each tire. When you put a tire through the retreading process, you get primarily two recycled and recyclable end products. You get a like-new retreaded tire, ready to hit the road again, and you get a nice little
amount of ground, shredded rubber that is made up of the old, ground up tread layer of the tire. The buffings are drawn away from the buffing machine by a system of air ducts. Those rubber buffings are collected during the buffing process and vacuumed into a trailer or collection container, where they can be hauled away by a recycler to be used again. The recycler can then systematically sort these buffings into various sizes. Dry them and package them for resale. Because the relatively low value of raw tire buffings varies so much, depending on demand and where you are located, it generally doesn’t make much sense to pay to ship them long distances. Getting the material where it needs to go is a big factor
when the tolerance for profit margin is very tight. Where do all those buffings go after they leave the retread plant? Most often the buffings are sold, or given to recyclers who find a multitude of uses for them. Since there is a definite value in the buffings they are never discarded or wasted. The buffings can be used by themselves, or as an additive component of crumb rubber, and are used extensively in pourin-place playground systems, bonded landscape surfaces, molded rubber products, and landscape rubber bark. In fact, most of you have come into contact with materials made from these buffings, either on playgrounds, athletic fields, floor pads and a multitude of other products, probably without even knowing it. Buffings are commodities that are in demand more than ever, and the retreaders who produce them have every reason to keep them moving into the recycling system. Because of their flammable nature,
storing piles or containers of buffings also presents fire dangers. Each state has different regulations about the storage of such materials. We at RTA, get correspondence from people who are looking to buy buffings, and some have very exacting specifications, about screening of the buffings, exclusion of steel and textile contaminants, low moisture content - even down to the way the full truckloads of buffings are packaged. There are a myriad of import laws around the world. Someone in South Korea, for example, may want to make sure that the scrap aircraft tires they are purchasing to use for boat bumpers don’t get stuck in customs awaiting clearance. And that can only be done by analyzing the buffings. Thanks to the retread industry worldwide, hundreds of millions of gallons of oil are saved every year, along with many other valuable resources that can be recycled in the retread process.
Retreads will nearly always be less expensive than comparable new tires, and you can do good for the environment by using retreads since they are always more environmentally friendly than new tires. Which brings us back to the mission of RTA: representing its members to make sure that THIS message gets through; The quality of properly retreaded modern tires is nowadays as good as, or better than that of new tires. Add the economic and environmental benefits to that, and you see why we work hard to improve the chances of our members to be successful in the market. The Retread Tire Association (RTA) is a non-profit international association which has committed itself to the economic and environmental benefits brought about by high quality retreading and repairing and recycling of tires. If you’d like more info, or to become a member, please contact us at info@ reteadtire.org.
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TIRE INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION [TIA]
Registration Now Open for Global Tire Expo
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owie, Maryland – The Tire Industry Association (TIA), a leader in tire safety, is pleased to announce that registration is now open for all TIA’s special preshow events. Each event will be held on Monday, October 30th at Paris Las Vegas Hotel. The Global Tire Expo/SEMA Show – Powered by TIA will be held at the Las Vegas
18 June 2017
Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV from October 31 to November 3, 2017. A l l T I A’s p r e - s h o w events are open to all TIA members and GTE attendees and will be held on Monday, October 30th. For a complete list of the schedule, please go to www.tireindustry.org/ global-tire-expo. There will be complimentary tickets for a Cocktail Ho u r f r o m 5:00pm to 6:00pm. The Tire Industry Honours Awards Ceremony will be from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Tickets are also
complimentary TIA Welcome Reception will by the Poolside from 8:00pm to 10:00pm. Tickets are $65.00 per person “Each year we look forward to connecting with key industry leaders and influencers during our official pre-show events,” said Roy Littlefield, Executive Vice President of TIA. “Included in our preshow schedule is the Tire Industry Honours Awards Ceremony.” To download a registration form, visit www. tireindustry.org/globaltire-expo.
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