The Swedish recycling company Scandinavian Enviro Systems and the French investment company Antin announced on Wednesday the creation of a tire recycling company, “the starting point for the industrialization” of the sector, which will supply Michelin with recycled materials.
The goal of this group is to build several factories in Europe, with a recycling capacity of “up to one million tons of end-of-life tires per year by 2030”, that is, one third of the annual amount of used tires in the continent .
670,000 less tons of carbon dioxide
This would mean, according to the press release, “an estimated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 670,000 tons.”
Specialist in the “development of sustainable infrastructures”, Antin must finance the initial investment and be the majority shareholder of the group. The participation of the Swedish Enviro should amount to 30%.
Tire recycling channels already exist, but for Michelin, the creation of this company “is the starting point for industrialization,” the group explained to AFP.
Based in Uddevalla in Sweden, the first factory should be operational “by 2025”. It should have an initial recycling capacity “equivalent to 34,500 tonnes of used tyres, or 40% of the annual volume of tires at the end of their useful life in Sweden.”
Its construction will begin in the second quarter
Its construction, still “subject to a final investment decision”, should begin in the second quarter. Michelin “plans to join this joint venture as the factories are built.”
In detail, Enviro is to take back the tires at the end of their useful life and recycle them using their proprietary technology. It consists of extracting and regenerating carbon black, which increases the resistance of the rubber, as well as pyrolysis oils.
Michelin, Enviro’s largest shareholder, plans to buy these two recycled components from this new manufacturer and use them to make new tires.
“By substituting virgin carbon black for Enviro recycling, it is possible to reduce emissions linked to the use of conventional carbon black by more than 90%,” stresses the Swedish group.
In Europe, “the volume of end-of-life tires discarded each year has steadily increased to 3.5 million tonnes per year,” according to the companies.
Source: BFM TV
