Scrap Tires | Scrap Tire News | Archived Article

A business - government venture launched a year ago between the North Carolina Department of Environmental Health and Natural Resources (DENR) and Charlotte - based Continental General Tire (CGT) has recycled more than 500,000 scrap tires to date in the production of new passenger and light truck tires with recycled rubber content.

The venture is being funded by a $1.2 million DENR grant awarded to Continental General to research and develop recycled content tires. Under the program, the state is paying CGT $300,000 annually for four years to expand its use of recycled rubber.

In the last year, CGT has been recycling at a rate that keeps 12 million pounds of scrap tires out of landfills, according to Ed Morant, CGT director of materials/radial light truck development, tire technology. "Our goal for the next twelve months is to increase that rate of usage," he said.

Currently, CGT's radial passenger tires contain up to 6 percent recycled rubber, while light truck tires contain as much as 4 percent, a company statement said.

Although North Carolina has set a goal of up to 25 percent recycled rubber content in new tires, Bill Meyer director of the state's waste management division said the actual amount of recycled content will depend on the results of CGT's research and testing of higher recycled content.

During the four year program, Conti will continue testing the possibility of higher crumb rubber content and how it would affect tire durability and performance, Morant said. "There's a limit to how much can be used, but we have to find that limit," he said. For example, it may not be possible to achieve the 25 percent goal set by the state without using devulcanized material with the crumb rubber, Morant explained.

Most of the crumb rubber used in the research program has come from suppliers in Pennsylvania and Mississippi, according to DENR's Bill Meyer. The reason, he said, is that North Carolina doesn't have the processing capability at this time for the type and size crumb rubber specified by the tire maker.

One of the state's goals in forming the partnership with CGT is to stimulate markets for scrap tires in North Carolina, Meyers said. North Carolina had initiated the venture by sending letters to all tire manufacturers with plants in the state asking them to submit a proposal for the grant which was slated for research and development of recycled content tires. Of the three tire manufacturers operating in the state, only CGT responded and sent a proposal.

Like some of its tire manufacturing counterparts, CGT had begun researching recycled content tires several years before in response to a Ford Motor Co. initiative asking suppliers to explore using recycled materials in their products and manufacturing processes.

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