08/06/2012: This Year’s Forum Day of the Tyre Recovery Association

The end of this May has brought to our attention the 8th Forum Day of the Tyre Recovery Association which was held under the name of “Commitment to Excellence”.

The forum gathered such illustrious or not such illustrious names on the tyre market,such as Michelin Tyre Plc, ATS Euromaster or the Environment Agency.

The Forum Day of the Tyre Recovery Association is an annual event and it was held this year in Warwickshire.

The Michelin representatives spoke at the Forum regarding the increase in economic power of eastern European countries in the detriment of western European countries.

He also stated that this shift in production and economic power will, to some extent, influence the UK tyre market.

The situation which will arise will not imply such general economic problems of the market niche as oversupply, but in fact a possible future struggle for leadership.

According to the Michelin spokesman China is currently probing Europe for innovating ideas. Moreover, current economic predictions state that the UK will surpass Germany and become Europe’s leading economic power by 2050.

This economic development will have a definitive impact on the UK tyre recycling niche as well as the development of the Tyre Recovery Association. Currently, in Britain 80% of the annual used tyres which have risen to over 540000 tonnes, are currently responsibly recycled through the correct and responsible recycling scheme.

This means that the country is heading towards the correct direction regarding this issue and that the 20% remaining will be corrected in the near future.

Another subject discussed on the issue is that of part worn tyres, issue which was the centre of the recent TyreSafe campaign.

The campaign focused mainly on the raising public awareness regarding part worn tyres that are not commercialized by legal distributors.

Unfortunately, as presented in the campaign, a significant percentage of part worn tyres that are being commercialized in the UK are illegal as most consumers focus mainly on the aesthetic part of the refurbished part worn tyre and they do not focus on the interior wear.

Tyre industry legislation and its current interpretative nature was also another issue which was discussed, especially regarding part worn tyres. Unfortunately, UK is currently one of Europe’s largest part worn tyre market especially because of this issue.

Another issue which was discussed was the fact that legislation is not necessarily needed if retailers would have been more conscious regarding the issue.

Some tyre retailers and recyclers, such as Micheldever retail are facilitating the recycling of tyres by performing numerous beneficial additional activities that are not regulated by the present UK legislation.

The most common additional methods are: stapling the shoulders of tyres, drilling the sidewalls and boltcropping the beads which, besides improving the recycling procedure also significantly limit the possibility of reintroducing the tyre on the market as a part worn tyre.

These actions significantly decrease the percentage of part worn tyres of UK origin, but unfortunately, the vast majority of part worn tyres that supply this market come from other countries.