On April 12, 2019 the EcoTyresUnion held its 1st all-Russian conference of the EcoTyresUnion partners.
The conference was attended by representatives of the EcoTyresUnion members — the largest international tire manufacturers (Georgy Rotov, Continental Kaluga; Elena Kustova, MICHELIN; Elena Timokhina, Nokian Tyres), heads of recycling companies, a representative of the specialized media (editor-in-chief of Solid Waste magazine Olga Sheveleva).
The conference became an effective communication platform where participants discussed the problems and prospects for the development of the tire waste management industry, analyzed current legislative initiatives and shared experience in organizing a system for waste tyres collecting and recycling.
The conference was opened by Sergey Podoynikov, Executive Director of EcoTyresUnion, who welcomed the participants of the conference and noted the importance of professional communication and exchange of experience in order to create an effective system of waste tyres management. Then the EcoTyresUnion Chairman of the Board – Georgy Rotov and a member of the EcoTyresUnion Board Elena Timokhina made their welcoming speeches.
Subsequently, Sergey Podoynikov made a detailed presentation on the activities of the EcoTyresUnion and the results achieved. Over the years of EcoTyresInion activity, the number of recycling companies that recycle waste tires for EcoTyresUnion has increased from 9 in 2017 to 19 in 2019, the volume of collected and recycled tires has increased 2.5 times, and 11 Russian regions have actively developed tire collection programs.
Special attention was paid to the organizational and legal aspects of the implementation of collection programs for waste tires. Sergey Podoynikov presented five variants of models for organizing the accumulation of waste tires with detailed legal reports that regulate step-by – step documentation of the process: two of the models are aimed at regulating the interaction of recycling companies with tire service centres, the rest of the models – the interaction with regional operators. These models caused an active discussion among the participants, since the issue of organizing the accumulation of tires for their further recycling is one of the key issues for organizing an effective waste management system. However, despite the importanceof the issue, there is limited legislative regulation – many aspects of the process are due to established practices, which differ to varying degrees depending on the region.
Then the word was given to representatives of recycling companies, who told about certain issues of the organization of waste tyres management system, while solving which the companies have achieved the first significant results. Thus, Elena Efimenko (commercial Director of «Premio Crumb» LLC, Saint Petersburg) shared her experience of interaction with tire service centres in the process of organizing the waste tyres collection. Margarita Tyunina (Director of CGS LLC, Nizhny Tagil) spoke about the specifics of interaction with administrative and Supervisory authorities in the context of organizing tire collection in the region. Hayk Gndlan (General Director of LLC «IRZ», Irkutsk) described the mechanisms of interaction with remote users. Anton Khamin (founder of Kuznetskekologiya LLC, Kemerovo region) presented the features of OTR processing and application of pyrolysis technology in the process of waste tyres recycling. Vladimir Koshcheev (Deputy General Director of LLC «Oris Prom») shared the practice of installation of special containers for the accumulation of waste tires.
The conference of the EcoTyresUnion partners was an important event in the tire recycling industry, bringing together unique and leading representatives of the industry. Thus, the founder of one of the participating companies also heads a company that is a regional operator, which allowed the conference to get an expert opinion on the issues of waste tyres management in the SMW management system. Most of the companies present at the conference are initiators and active participants of regional environmental programs for waste tyres collecting, organized together with state authorities and public organizations. No less important is the fact that most of the companies participating in the conference use several recycling technologies at once. In the future, they plan to expand the diversification of technologies and the range of final products produced.
Integrated thematic program, the unique team of participants, free format of discussions allowed to reach the important results: the conference has formed a new look at models of interaction between participants of the process of waste tyres management, became an additional step in the development of regional programmes for the collection of waste tires, demonstrated the effective dynamics of the improvement of the recycling companies with the assistance of EcoTyresUnion and allowed to determine the prospects for further development.
Participants expressed the hope that such events will become a tradition that provides tyre recycling companies with the opportunity to share their experience, specifics, successes and difficulties, to talk about plans, prospects and innovations of their approach, and as a result – to develop common effective and legally formed approaches to the organization of the waste tyres management system.
