Monday, November 01, 2010 2:04:00 PM
The UK produces over 500,000 tonnes of waste tyres per year. Since 2006, tyres have been banned from landfill, and therefore efforts have been made to find new and novel re-use routes for waste tyres including the use of baled tyres in the construction of roads, soakaways, embankments and flood defence schemes.
WRc undertook an international literature review for the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) on the environmental impacts of the use of baled tyres in aquatic environments. This included a comparison of the leachability data in the leachXS© expert system and an assessment carried out by our toxicologists on the potential impact on water quality and toxicity to aquatic organisms. For most scenarios, WRc found that although tyres will leach some potentially toxic compounds when in contact with water, they will not leach in sufficient concentrations to adversely affect water quality. James Peacock presented the results of this project at the UK "Waste 2010" conference in September 2010.
For further information contact James Peacock at james.peacock@wrcplc.co.ukor telephone +44 (0) 1793 865046.