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Tyre Recycling

Index

1. Current Status on ELT(End-of-Life Tyres) Recycling
2. The Status of Illegal Dumping of ELT
3. JATMA Support Program
【Reference】Effort to Reduce

1. Current Status on ELT(End-of-Life Tyres) Recycling

Processing flow of ELT recycling

(1) Volume of ELT generated

In 2021, the sum of ELT generated by replacing tyres and scrapped vehicles in Japan was 91 million tyres on a quantity basis and 987,000 tons on a weight basis. Compared with the previous year, ELT increased by 5 million tyres and by 50,000 tons.

The figures increased from the previous year, which was affected by the COVID-19, but both have not reached the level of 2019, before the spread of COVID-19.

①

The amount of ELT generated by replacing tyres.
The amount of ELT generated by replacing tyres was 77 million tyres and 854,000 tons, which was both an increase compared with the previous year, due to recovery in sales of replacement tyres.

②

The amount of ELT generated by scrapped vehicles.
The amount of ELT generated by scrapped vehicles was 14 million tyres and 133,000 tons, both increasing from the previous year and recovering to levels close to those before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volume of ELT

(Tyres: millions; Weight: kt)

	2017				2018				2019				2020				2021
	tyres	weight	distribution (%)		tyres	weight	distribution (%)		tyres	weight	distribution (%)		tyres	weight	distribution (%)		tyres	weight	distribution (%)		2020/2019 (%)
	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight	tyres	weight
The amount generated by replacing tyres	83	897	86	87	82	892	85	86	81	884	84	86	73	806	85	86	77	854	85	87	105	106
The amount generated by scrapped vehicles	14	137	14	13	14	140	15	14	15	142	16	14	13	131	15	14	14	133	15	13	108	102
Total	97	1,034	100	100	96	1,032	100	100	96	1,026	100	100	86	937	100	100	91	987	100	100	106	105

Source: JATMA

(2) Current status of the ELT recycling

In 2021, the amount of recycled waste decreased by 8,000 tons from the previous year, to a total of 904,000 tons, and the recycling rate decreased by 5 percentage points to 92%.

In particular, the impact of the closure of gasification furnaces in Hyogo Prefecture in March 2020, which used ELT, was significant, resulting in an increase in landfills in neighboring areas.

In addition, the prices of cut / shredded ELT purchased by domestic thermal recycling users tend to stop declining.

Status of ELT

				2017		2018		2019		2020		2021
				weight （kt）	distribu- tion (%)	weight （kt）	distribu- tion (%)	weight （kt）	distribu- tion (%)	weight （kt）	distribu- tion (%)	weight （kt）	distribu- tion (%)	2021/2020 (%)
Kind of recycling	Domestic	Material Recycling	Retreaded tyre bases	54	5	51	5	51	5	46	5	50	5	109
			Reclaimed rubber	118	11	120	12	132	13	115	12	84	9	73
			Other reuse	6	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	–
			Subtotal (A)	178	17	172	17	183	18	162	17	135	14	83
		Thermal Recycling	Paper manufacturing	436	42	446	43	402	39	412	44	425	43	103
			Chemical factories	47	5	66	6	66	6	96	10	112	11	117
			Cement factories	70	7	64	6	70	7	69	7	73	7	106
			Steel manufacturing	17	2	14	1	18	2	16	2	17	2	106
			Gasification facilities	58	6	61	6	56	5	10	1	1	0	10
			Tyre manufacturing	21	2	20	2	9	1	2	0	2	0	100
			Small boilers	3	1	3	1	2	1	2	1	3	1	150
			Subtotal (B)	652	63	674	65	623	61	607	65	633	64	104
	Abroad	Export	Whole tyres (used tyres)	131	13	148	14	158	15	141	15	133	13	94
			Cut / shredded (for raw and fuel)	4	1	3	1	2	1	2	1	3	1	150
			Subtotal (C)	135	13	151	15	160	16	143	15	136	14	95
Total recycling (A+B+C)				965	93	997	97	966	94	912	97	904	92	99
Landfill				1	1	1	1	1	1	5	1	11	2	220
Incineration, Storage, etc.				68	7	34	3	59	6	20	2	72	7	360
Subtotal (D)				69	7	35	3	60	6	25	3	83	8	332
Total (A+B+C+D)				1,034	100	1,032	100	1,026	100	937	100	987	100	105

Source: JATMA

N.B.: There can be some cases that distribution's subtotals and the sums of their constituent items don't match due to the handling of decimals.

(3) Others

In recent years, the domestic thermal recycle users have continued to purchase cut / shredded ELT from overseas, and the annual import volume in 2021 was about 75,000 tons.

This import volume is not included in the JATMA statistics.

2. The Status of Illegal Dumping of ELT

At the time of investigation in February 2022, there were 76 cases, 24,499 tons of illegal dumping of ELT in Japan.

(Compared with the previous year, the total weight decreased by 1,864 tons.)

Status of Illegal Dumping

Weight: tons

2021		2022
Case	Weight	Case	Weight	Year-on-year change
Case	Weight	Case	Weight	Case	Weight
69	26,363	76	24,499	+7	-1,864

Source: JATMA

Trend of Illegal Dumping

		2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Illegal dumping	*1	31,966	32,026	24,492	26,991	26,363	24,499
Illegal dumping	*2	3,775	3,745	3,185	26,991	26,363	24,499
Case		91	89	75	70	69	76

Source: JATMA

^＊1 : Person or company who illegally dumped the tyres are identified

^＊2 : Person or company who illegally dumped the tyres are not identified

3. JATMA Support Program

To reduce illegal dumping of ELT, JATMA has been operating a restoration support system since 2005.

In the total of 17 years, from 2005 to 2021, JATMA supported 362.13 million yen for 22 cases, and removed 2,966,306 tyres /29,867 tons of ELT.

JATMA will continue this support program.

【Reference】Effort to Reduce

In 2005, JATMA adopted a concept of reduce coefficient, which focuses on both longer tyres life and lighter weight tyres. We are promoting the monitoring of the reduce achievement rate aiming at the benchmark effect in designing new products. By this promoting, we are striving to reduce the amount of ELT (End-of-Life Tyres) generated (target 10%, effective 3-5%).

In recent years, the performance required for tyres has been diversified in terms of noise reduction, wet grip, rolling resistance, etc., and it is also important to consider the balance between these requirements and reduce coefficient.

Reduce achievement rates

Category	Tyre Size	Classification	Reduce achievement rates
Category	Tyre Size	Classification	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Passenger car tyres	155/65R13	Summer tyres	114	-	144	-	96
Passenger car tyres	155/65R13	Studless tyres	111	102	-	85	98
Passenger car tyres	175/65R14	Summer tyres	113	95	124	-	98
Passenger car tyres	175/65R14	Studless tyres	111	103	-	85	99
Passenger car tyres	195/65R15	Summer tyres	107	102	114	-	108
Passenger car tyres	195/65R15	Studless tyres	111	99	-	95	100
Passenger car tyres	215/45R17	Summer tyres	107	101	120	-	118
Passenger car tyres	215/45R17	Studless tyres	111	97	-	72	102
Light truck tyres	145R12 (145/80R12)	Summer tyres	126	-	110	-	-
Light truck tyres	145R12 (145/80R12)	Studless tyres	-	-	-	-	97
Light truck tyres	185R14 (185/80R14)	Summer tyres	-	-	124	-	-
Light truck tyres	185R14 (185/80R14)	Studless tyres	-	-	-	-	97
Light truck tyres	205/70R16	Summer tyres	-	-	101	115	133
Light truck tyres	205/70R16	Studless tyres	-	-	-	96	-
Truck and bus tyres	225/80R17.5	Summer tyres	126	118	109	100	-
Truck and bus tyres	225/80R17.5	Studless tyres	106	87	-	-	111
Truck and bus tyres	245/70R19.5	Summer tyres	122	117	107	-	-
Truck and bus tyres	245/70R19.5	Studless tyres	100	93	-	-	107
Truck and bus tyres	11R22.5	Summer tyres	119	118	106	100	-
Truck and bus tyres	11R22.5	Studless tyres	100	87	-	100	110

Source: JATMA

N.B.:

1. Wear Life Index(L) = Wear life on design specification of new product (km) ÷ Wear life on design specification of old product (km)
Weight Index (W) = Weight of new product (kg) ÷ Weight of old product (kg)
Reduce Coefficient = Wear Life Index (L) ÷ Weight Index (W)
Reduce Achievement Rate = Reduce Coefficient × 100

2. 7.50R16 has been replaced by 245/70R19.5 since 2007.