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Project title

Mapping the Role of End-of-Life Tyres for a Sustainable Circular Economy in Ireland

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University College Cork (UCC)

Lead Applicant

Archishman Bose

Project Abstract

Tyres are the wheels of modern civilisation. In the European Union (EU), over 300 million units of tyres are sold annually. These tyres, evidently reach their end of life (EOL) and requires disposal, reuse, or repurposing. Currently, recycling and/or repurposing of waste tyres (68%) is the most common method of EOL treatment of waste tyres in Ireland, followed by energy recovery such as fuel in cement kiln (27%) and further re-use (3%). Recently, however, the European Committee has proposed to adopt the REACH Regulation which aims to restrict the release of microplastics into the environment. In addition, new regulations are being considered to restrict the export of wastes from the EU to promote circular economy, which is mirrored in Ireland’s National Waste Policy 2020-2025. These regulations will severely limit the current uses of EOL tyres and would require critical analyses of the alternative pathways of use and repurposing of the waste tyres in Ireland. Accordingly, this project, Mapping the Role of End-of-Life Tyres for a Sustainable Circular Economy in Ireland (ENTYRE), is aimed at performing a deep review of existing practices and literature regarding utilisation pathways of waste EOL tyres in terms of their techno-economic and environmental impacts as well as from the light of current and upcoming local (Irish) and international (EU) policies. At first, a thorough analyses of REACH restrictions and impending waste export ban will be conducted to inform and map how resources around EOL tyres in Ireland will look when the restrictions and policies are implemented. Novel alternatives and recent developments regarding innovative conversion and management of EOL tyres will then be reviewed and modelled including thermochemical, and biochemical routes of devulcanization of rubber using ASPEN Plus for techno-economic evaluations. Greenhous gas analyses and impact on microplastic pollution will also be conducted to evaluate their environmental performance. The project would further involve interaction with relevant stakeholders, industries, and decision makers using questionnaires and workshop (s) to ascertain the relative importance of technical, economic and environmental criteria in decision making relative to EOL tyre use in Ireland. These learnings will be combined through multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) to rank technological pathways for valorisation of EOL tyres in Ireland. The concept of the project, ENTYRE, is thus, to effectively determine technical opportunities and combine them with policy and industry viewpoints and interests to develop opportunities and generate viable pathways and roadmaps for future use of EOL tyres in Ireland while answering the following key unknowns: 1) How would the current practices change under recent and upcoming policies (national and EU); 2) What alternate treatments would be most suitable in the Irish context?; and 3) How would alternate treatments contribute to the goals of decarbonisation and circular economy in Ireland?

Grant Approved

�143,070.80

Research Hub

Green and Circular Economy

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

31/03/2024

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/03/2025