Over 700 thousand collection interventions completed at about 25 thousand tyre dealers throughout the national territory. To these, one must add the emptying of historical stocks and the extra-ordinary collection of ELTs abandoned in the territories of the Terra dei Fuochi – for a total of 87 thousand tonnes of recovered ELTs.
Thanks to the recovery activities of Ecopneus, over 1.15 billion euros have been saved on the imports of virgin raw materials. Moreover, 3.36 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent were not dispersed into the atmosphere and 3.3 million tonnes of virgin raw materials as well as 15.5 million m3 of water were not used. Ecopneus is the main operator in the management of End-of-Life Tyres in Italy (about 60% of the total). The figures here-above were first shown by Ecopneus on occasion of the presentation of the Sustainability Report that describes its first 10 years of activities. The Report has been drafted by the Sustainable Development Foundation
On that occasion, Mr Federico Dossena has been appointed General Manager of the consortium. He has taken over the management of a solid and excellent system that he can further improve, in particular for what concerns the applications of recycled rubber.
The equivalent of a pile of tyres with the dimensions of a football pitch and 1.5km high. This is the amount of ELTs – End-of-Life Tyres – that have been recovered thanks to the activities of the Ecopneus chain in 10 years. These are important results that confirm the validity of a system that has put a unique effort in the Italian business world, managing about 60% of the ELTs generated in Italy every year. Thanks to the contribution of all the involved stakeholders, this effort has concretely benefited society and the environment in the course of the years, strongly promoting a constantly growing use of recycled rubber in many applications that are useful for our daily life. Moreover, Ecopneus has favoured the development of a culture of recycling and of sustainability. It is a virtuous path based on ethics, transparency and responsibility. In their turn, these principles have turned Ecopneus into a case of excellence that carries on even today with the appointment of its new General Manager, Mr Federico Dossena, to carry on leading the way for the development of the circular economy of our Country.
From 2011 to today, Ecopneus has managed 2,220,090 tonnes of End-of-Life Tyres (the equivalent of 20 aircraft carriers in weight), 130 thousand tonnes above its legal targets (+6% as an average every year). It has also carried out over 700 thousand collection interventions at the about 25 thousand tyre dealers registered all over the Italian national territory. An incredible effort has been dedicated to the interventions in historical stocks and for the extra-ordinary collection of those ELTs abandoned in the territories of the Terra dei Fuochi, for a total of 87 thousand tonnes of ELTs recovered.
A thorough and unique effort on all the national territory that sees Ecopneus managing 200,000 tonnes of ELTs as an average every year. Their weight is equivalent to about 22 million automobile tyres. In ten years of activity, 48% of collected ELTs has been destined to energy recovery; on the contrary, 52% has been recovered as material mainly destined to produce rubber granules and powders used in various applications: sports surfaces (50%), objects and components (29%), items in rubber (8%), soundproofing materials for the building sector (7%), and low noise asphalts (3%). In the course of time, the share of tyres destined to material recovery has grown steadily. This has confirmed the consolidation of the industrial system Ecopneus has developed that is composed of about 100 companies spread on the national territory. These companies are constantly updated and apply the best practices and treatment technologies available on the market.
Giovanni Corbetta, who has led Ecopneus since its foundation, stated: “The important management results obtained by Ecopneus in 10 years of activities are the outcome of a far-reaching strategy that has allowed to create a system based on quality, skills, and innovation, involving all the stakeholders of the system in different ways: citizens, Institutions, the companies of the treatment and recycling chains, research bodies, associations. In the last 10 years, many things have changed and the industrial system managed by Ecopneus has progressively become more structured. This improvement is ascribable also to a quality management process that has allowed to constantly improve the output of the recycling process”.
The new General Manager of Ecopneus, Mr Federico Dossena, said: “We shall continue to innovate, paying great attention to research and contributing to the development of the culture of sustainability by the means of activities of information and training. The aim is to maximise the benefits deriving from the recovery of ELTs to the advantage of society. In time, Ecopneus has been strongly committed to develop the sales markets for recycled rubber. It is a wear and weather resistant material; it is elastic and resists chemicals. Introduced into a virtuous cycle such as the one we have developed, rubber can really make the difference and contribute to the circular economy of many sectors such as building, manufacturing, sports and infrastructure”.
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