A proposal for a waste tyre treatment plant and its environmental impact assesment

Abstract

The annual generation of waste tyre (WT) in Catalonia is approximately 40,000 tons. The control of their disposal is an environmental issue due to their non-biodegradable components. In Spain the correct coordination and treatment of WTs is conduced by two integrated management systems (IMS), who were created from the requeriment of the Real Decreto 1619/2005. Unfortunately, the IMSs estimate that an amount between 15% and 20% of WTs are not being declared, implying they are not receiving a proper treatment. The recycling of WTs, whose main materials are rubber, steel and textile can be conduced in two ways: using them as a tyre derived fuel (TDF) or as a tyre derived material (TDM). The WTs treatment plant planned in this study include mechanical treatments and size reduction technologies to obtain different sizes of TDM, with the purpose to comply with the different alternatives of applications, even as a TDF for cement industry.