Scandinavian EnviroSystems says it is to submit a proposal for consultation documentation to the county administrative board in Västra Götaland, Sweden, ahead of a future permit application for a new recycling plant for end-of-life vehicle tires. The consultation relates to the establishment of a new facility in Uddevalla Municipality with the capacity to recycle half of all end-of-life tires in Sweden each year.
Enviro states that it aims to build four new recycling plants per year over the next 10 years. West Sweden and Central Europe are its initial priority markets and it has identified an industrial site in Lillesjö in Uddevalla Municipality as a potentially suitable site.
Since 2013, Enviro has operated a wholly owned recycling plant at Åsensbruk in Mellerud Municipality, with a permit to recycle a maximum of 15,000 tons of tires per year. The planned facility in Uddevalla is estimated to have a maximum capacity of 60,000 tons per year.
The company expects to submit the permit application in early autumn. A final decision on establishing a plant is also dependent on several other factors, such as securing access to end-of-life tires and agreements covering deliveries of recovered materials.
Enviro has developed a method for recycling end-of-life vehicle tires to recover constituent components such as carbon black, oil and steel. The recovered carbon black is suitable for use in the production of new tires. A lifecycle analysis conducted by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) showed that tire production using carbon black that has been recycled using Enviro’s method could lead to 79-84% lower greenhouse gas emissions compared with production using virgin carbon black. To this end, Enviro has entered into a strategic partnership with the French tire manufacturer Michelin, which has been its largest shareholder since April 2020.
