Current Status of Tire Recycling in Taiwan

There are more than 15 millions cars or motors in Taiwan. According to the statistics from Environmental Protection Administration, the number of resulting scrap tires are near 110 thousand tons each year. The tire recycle programs in Taiwan were first conducted in 1989 and executed by ROC Scrap Tire Foundation. However, the current efficiency of the tire recycling industry still needs to be improved to minimize the environmental problem or fire hazards caused by scrap tires storage. Ten major tire-recycling factories are surveyed in this study. The investigations include the source of scrap tire, the shredding process, the market of products, the management of wastes disposal, and the difficulties of these sectors. As the varieties of the shredding machines of the recycle factories, there are three kinds of final products which include powder, granular, and chips. The wastes, wires and fibers, produced by the shredding process are the major problems fur all the factories. The percentage of the wire and fiber removal from rubbers still needs to be increased. The best approaches found in this study to increase the efficiency of scrap tire recycling processes are proposed which include the improvement of magnetic separation system fiber/rubber separation system and the minimization of waste disposal. A categorized standard of the processing outputs is suggested as a reference for the decision-making of the tire-recycling factories.