Suomen Tengaskierrätys –
An impressive Tyre Plant

About Finnish Tyre Recycling Ltd

About 65,000 tonnes of car tyres are taken off the roads every year in Finland. This is enough to produce tyres for about six million passenger cars. Looked at another way, this amount of tyres could cover about 340 football fields. Finnish Tyre Recycling Ltd collect old, worn-out tyres and make recycled products from the output. The company want to help both tyre industry professionals and consumers to take care of the natural environment, and to make the circular economy in Finland even more efficient and effective.

As recently as the early 1990s, tyre recycling in Finland was very haphazard and unregulated, and was strongly dependent on operators being environmentally aware. Consequently, most disused tyres ended up being dumped in landfills, and in the environment. Among the first to see the need to tackle this problem were the tyre traders and importers that founded Finnish Tyre Recycling Ltd on their own initiative. That was in 1995. Ever since then, their task, on behalf of their members, has been to take care of the collection and recycling of tyres in an environmentally responsible way. Tyre Recycling Ltd began their recycling operations in 1996.

The Plant

Finnish Tyre Recycling Ltd (Suomen Rengaskierrätys) wanted a state-of-the-art tyre recycling plant in Lopella, Finland, and Eldan Recycling are proud to be a part of this groundbreaking project now ready and in use.

We’ve recognized in the industry that a tire is too valuable a product for simple construction use, despite its effectiveness in that domain. With this new plant, we aim to separate up to 99.99% of all rubber material from tyres, converting it into secondary raw material for the rubber industry, says Risto Tuominen, CEO of Suomen Rengaskierrätys Oy.

Their advanced equipment from Eldan Recycling is designed to produce close to 100% pure rubber, steel, and tyre fibres separately. The rubber is meticulously cut and ground to meet the desired specifications. The plant is equipped to handle 20,000 tons of tyres over two shifts. However, should demand for the products increase, the capacity can be boosted to 30,000 tons by introducing a third shift. This facility will create numerous direct and indirect job opportunities through tyre collection and handling logistics.

Tyre Recycling Ltd has already established negotiations with both domestic and international rubber industry players. Although there is a growing demand for recycled materials, Tuominen acknowledges the challenges in competing with virgin materials.

While decision-makers are advocating for recycling, legislation makes market penetration challenging. Recycled products still struggle to compete with virgin products, he adds.

Tuominen hopes for more criteria in public procurement that would mandate and favor the use of recycled raw materials, thereby increasing demand for recycled rubber.

“When tyre material is currently marketed for construction use, its price is almost negligible. On the other hand, secondary raw materials for rubber products are already fetching prices in the hundreds of euros per tonne,” Tuominen estimates.

The production and sale of higher-grade recycled material would also allow for a reduction in producer responsibility fees for tyres.

The Eldan technology ensures that the steel contained in the rubber is separated and made available as a raw material for the metal industry. Additionally, tyres contain polymeric and structural fibres such as aramid. From the approximately 20,000 tonnes of tyres processed at the plant, about two thousand tonnes of fibre will be extracted. Initially, these fibres will be used for energy, but as Tuominen notes, research into material recycling of the fibres is already underway. These fibres could potentially be utilized in products such as insulation mats or other textile fibre products.

*source text: Tyre and Rubber 2022
*source picture: Tyre Recycling Ltd