– By Gerard Norsa –
With fleet managers increasingly being called upon to align their operations with broader environmental and cost efficiency objectives, it’s time to have a look at what value can be brought to the conversation by taking tyre supply choices into consideration.
Making good decisions about the size and fit-for-purpose vehicles to minimise fuel consumption, and total cost of ownership, is well established as a key component of fleet procurement process. But do tyres also come under scrutiny to contribute to the sustainability story?
Arguably, the two biggest tyre related environmental issues for fleet managers are the adoption of so-called ‘eco-tyres’ and engaging with suppliers that are actively pursuing solutions to deal with the growing end-of-life disposal.
End-of-life tyres – An environmental nightmare
US-based industry research organisation Freedonia has estimated that global demand for tyres would exceed 3.3 billion units in 2015. This represents an increase of 4.7% over the previous year with demand for the Asia/Pacific region growing ahead of average and now accounting for over half of the demand.
There are no accurate figures on where and how many end-of-life tyres exist in Australia. Nor is there any centralised mapping of where they are. So when you consider that, in Australia alone, the equivalent of nearly 51 million passenger tyres reached end-of-life in 2014, and this has been growing steadily for many years, it brings the gravity of the potential environmental nightmare into focus.
According to a 2014 report from Hyder (commissioned by Australia’s National Environment Protection Council, or NEPC), only 5% of Australia’s discarded tyres each year are presently recycled locally.
Unfortunately, the rest are consigned to landfill, licensed storage facilities, illegally dumped, or exported overseas where they are often incinerated to extract the metal or as fuel which generates a significant amount of highly toxic emissions.
The Hyder report shows the final destination of in excess of 60% of Australia’s used tyres is “unknown”.
Wherever they are, there is a lot of them at risk of catching fire or breaking down, thereby leaching toxic chemicals and heavy metals into soil structures and water tables.
Government steps in
Deciding just what to do with potentially highly hazardous used tyres is increasingly becoming an issue for regulatory bodies and they want the industry to take some of the responsibility.
Interestingly, regulatory authorities in Australia and New Zealand appear to have assigned different priorities to addressing the environmental impact of tyres.
In 2014, NEPC initiated the Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) program which serves to combine the resources and knowledge of tyre manufacturers, retailers, recyclers and collectors to address some of the issues relating to end-of-life tyres. It’s self-regulation by the industry with support from the Commonwealth.
TSA’s stated mission is to minimise the environmental, health and safety impacts of end-of-life tyres generated in Australia and to develop Australia’s tyre recycling industry including markets for tyre derived products. It helps to promote an awareness of the need to take full life cycle into consideration when making buying decisions and provides support to R&D on recycling innovation.
“The objectives of the [TSA] scheme will be achieved through industry participation at all levels of the tyre supply chain and with the support of government” its mission statement says.
“The ACCC authorisation of a small levy on the sale of new tyres and the broad industry participation in the scheme will ensure the viability of both the scheme and the economic foundation to provide encouragement for new uses for properly recycled end of life tyres.”
Conversely, in New Zealand, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), under the EnergyWise program, has preferred to direct funding towards promoting the concept of buying tyres that improve fuel efficiency, therefore reducing carbon emissions.
EECA’s EnergyWise initiative with key support from industry, provides a centralised online resource which allocates an approval mark for tyres to help people find tyres that meet minimum criteria for both fuel efficiency and safety.
There is also a TyreWise program in New Zealand helping to manage the 3.9 million passenger tyres and 1.2 million truck and other tyres that reach their end of life annually there but it never took off like TSA in Australia.
Do eco-tyres save fuel?
As big as the end-of-life tyre disposal issue is, there is also good news about the impact of tyre selection on improved environmental outcomes.
More than just a marketing buzz-word, eco-tyres are designed to deliver better fuel consumption from the vehicles to which they are fitted through less rolling resistance which is generally credited with accounting for up to 33% of fuel consumption. Tests have shown that up to 90% of that resistance comes from drive and/or trailer tyres.
Improvements to rolling resistance are largely achieved through improved tread pattern design and new tyre compound recipes which use more silicon to create less drag. It’s not just manufacturers spruiking the benefits either. Independent tests appear to back up the results.
In a road test conducted by Drive.com.au in 2010, eco-tyres fitted to a passenger vehicle proved to be as much as 7% more fuel efficient around town and slightly less on the open road. This has the potential to create significant cost savings for larger fleets or ones that are racking up lots of kilometres.
