Rubber Journal Asia Reclaimed Rubber
Rubber reclaiming gains traction Increased consumption of rubber is
Natural rubber is also vulnerable to the effects of climate change, population growth, and economic developments. This situation is cascading to final goods, specifically the tyre sector. Today, a large percentage of the world’s scrap tyres is incinerated in cement kilns for tyre-derived fuel, disposed of in landfills or utilised in civil engineering filling operations. However, this end use of a valuable resource prohibits the beneficial recovery for the replacement of new virgin material. Numerous scientific studies and life cycle assessments have demonstrated that recycling used tyres, compared to incineration for tyrederived fuel and civil engineering filling operations, dramatically reduces greenhouse gas emissions, acidification and fossil fuel demand.
outpacing supply, thus resulting in shortages. One way of countering this is by recycling tyres to obtain crumb rubber, a practice that is becoming a preferred option due its sustainability, says Angelica Buan. As a result, more suppliers are also rolling out reclaimed rubber from end-of-life tyres.
Asian countries step up recycling efforts hina, a large consumer of rubber, is pushing a comprehensive utilisation of its waste rubber policy, as part of its 11th five-year agenda, according to the Ministry of Energy Saving and Comprehensive Utilisation Department. It produces a huge bulk of waste rubber, especially from tyres, according to the China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA). Thus, the country’s recycling market is among the most vigorous in the world, expected to reach nearly US$156 billion by 2018, says BCC Research. Since the country lacks rubber resources, it also relies on reclaimed rubber as a solution. The country’s edge is in having the technology to produce rubber, as well as tyre shredding at room temperature. China has put the recycling industry high on its development agenda for the next decade. Increasing environmental concerns and governmental regulation will forsee growth in this market over the near term, adds BCC. Thailand also produces waste tyres amounting to 600,000 tonnes and reclaims rubber from this resource, according to a National Science and Technology Development Agency-sponsored paper presented to the Faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2013. It says that the reclaimed rubber, which is economically and environmentally viable, can be reused independently to produce rubber mats, rubber sheets, and rubber tubing. It can also be used as an additive for new rubber products, like new tyres. Another large rubber consumer, India, is reshaping its views on recycling. While tyre recycling is not unknown in India, only now are automated processes being used to achieve outputs of 99.99% pure granulate.
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ubber output from Asia, home of the world’s major rubber producing countries, namely, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Cambodia, should be enough to cover the global requirement for rubber and ensure a stable supply of the commodity. Unfortunately, this is not the case. While the region’s rubber production accounts for nearly 93% of the global supply, it only caters to 57% of the global demand for the commodity, according to the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC). There has been an unsteady stream of rubber supply worldwide, which is being remedied in various ways. For example, India, the world’s third largest consumer of rubber, is increasing its import of rubber by as much as 38%, to compensate the shortage. The Rubber Board of India says that the gap between local production and consumption of rubber is widening. Total production during the JanuaryApril period of the current financial year was 723,000 tonnes, while consumption was 811,110 tonnes, leaving a deficit of 88,110 tonnes. Tyres a main user of rubber he surge in automobile demand is also a reason for the shortage of rubber supply. Research firm Freedonia, in its World Tires’ study says that the Asia Pacific region will account for two-thirds of total global growth for tyres, expected to reach 2.9 billion units until 2017. Thus, the popular usage of commercial vehicle radial tyres and growing demand in the fastdeveloping economies like China and India is also triggering a supply-consumption imbalance.
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