Pacific Rim nations blamed for casing shortage

By Miles Moore Crain staff report (R&PN)

Sacramento, California -- Exports of scrap tyres from California to the Pacific Rim are increasing enormously, and many of the state's scrap tyre recyclers are concerned about losing the raw materials they need to stay in business.

“It's a definite problem that's going to continue to grow,” said Michael Byrne, president of Shamrock Tire Recycling Inc. in Livermore, Calif.

In the last couple of years, Byrne said, he has lost 30 to 40 percent of his business to haulers who transport available waste tyres to California ports for shipment to Asia for use as tyre-derived fuel.

Byrne isn't the only recycler who is suffering because waste tyres are being exported, according to Terry Leveille, legislative representative for the California Tire Dealers Association.

“With haulers paying as low as $20 a ton to deliver whole waste tyres to ports in Oakland, Long Beach and Los Angeles (where most are baled as sent overseas in backhaul cargo containers), some tyre recyclers are seeing their formerly robust tyre flow-and subsequent output-severely reduced,” Leveille said in the July 11 issue of his California Tire Report, which he emails to CTDA members.

The $20-per-ton tipping fee charged by tyre shippers compares with the $50 per ton Byrne said he has to charge for scrap tyre shipments.

The details of California's current scrap tyre situation are in the “California Tire Market Report: 2010” issued last month by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).

In 2010, California reached an all-time-record waste tyre diversion rate of 81 percent, up from 72.6 percent in 2009, the report stated. CalRecycle projects an overall waste tyre diversion rate in the state of 83 percent in 2011, which would be well on the way to reaching the department's goal of a 90-percent diversion rate by 2015.

“However, nearly all of this net increase was a result of the continued, unprecedented rapid growth of baled and processed waste tyres to Pacific Rim nations, largely for use as tyre-derived fuel,” the report said.

As always, domestic TDF use also played a major role in the California scrap tyre market in 2010, CalRecycle said.

“If waste tyre exports and domestic tyre-derived fuel were excluded, the overall California waste tyre diversion rate would be only 45.2 percent,” it said.

The export of California scrap tyres began three or four years ago, when a group of people started buying up tyres to ship to Vietnamese ports, then from there to the Vietnam-China border, according to Byrne.

“It's my understanding that imports of waste tyres are illegal in China, so they had to ship them through the back door,” he said.

Now there are several outfits specialising in shipping scrap tyres to Asia, and Byrne-whose company makes a 6-inch aggregate chip for civil engineering uses-said those shipments are making it increasingly harder for him to stay in business.

“If things continue the way they're going, soon they'll be going two or three states inland to get scrap tyres to ship,” he said. “Every week I get two or three calls from exporters who want to deal with me. I tell them, 'You want me to completely change my business? I don't want to do that.'”

Byrne said he has tried to contact state officials several times to get their help, but has never heard back from any of them.

Leveille said CalRecycle officials have told him there is nothing they can do to prevent scrap tyre imports to Asia. “Once the tyres reach port, they tell me, those tyres are out of their jurisdiction,” he said.

CalRecycle is continuing to do everything it can to promote waste tyre recycling within California, but there's nothing it can do to prevent tyres from being shipped overseas, according to a spokeswoman for the agency.

“Tyre haulers are going to take their tyres where it will cost them less, or even where they can earn something for them,” she said.

Although the new report shows that scrap tyre exports are increasing rapidly, it also shows there is still plenty of crumb rubber and other scrap tyre material available within the state, the spokeswoman said.

Among other programs to promote scrap tyre use, CalRecycle will soon issue the details of a new grant and technical program to help suppliers of tyre-derived aggregate, she said.

California generated 41.1 million scrap tyres in 2010, just a shade less than the 41.2 million recorded in 2009, according to the CalRecycle report.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)