Brazil - Increasing tyre recycling targets

In an effort to reduce the number of tyres dumped in the Brazilian countryside, the government has stipulated that tyre manufacturers in Brazil are to collect and recycle 20 per cent more tyres than nationwide sales from 2005 onwards. The collection will take place mainly through a network of 4000 points of sales which deliver them to “Eco-Points”, large warehouses provided by municipal governments. Tyres are then ground up in one of three special centres.

The resulting material is then used by a number of cement and lime plants as well as the paper and cellulose industries. For instance, Votorantim uses already 10 per cent less petroleum at its Rio Branco works, Parana state. It hopes to double the use of ground tyres as fuel this year.

In 2002, the 16 member companies of the National Association of the Tire Industry (ANIP), sold 30.4m new tyres in the domestic market and 15.6m abroad. Nearly 11m tyres were recycled , according to Gerardo Tomasini, president of ANIP. This surpassed the target of a quarter of domestic sales, ie 7.6m tyres by a broad margin. For this year and next, targets of half and all new tyre sales respectively have been set.

Tomasini commented on the 2005 target that it “is a complex and expensive task for an industry that already pays 40 per cent in taxes on sales, but we will make every effort to meet the targets that have been set.