Ecopneus collected and managed about 18,000 tonnes of End-of-Life tyres in Sicily in 2018. This is equivalent to the weight of 2 million automobile tyres. If we were to put them in a row, we could create a line that is about 1,000 km long: the distance from Palermo to Messina!
Surfaces in recycled rubber shaped to recreate their main applications, such as: football pitches, athletics tracks, “silent” and long-lasting asphalts: a whole car is dedicated to the recycling of End-of-Life tyres of Ecopneus, where installations, games and illustrations will explain the advantages of recycling of this precious material both to students and visitors.
How can End-of-Life tyres fight climate change, limit the use of fossil resources and of energy, and contribute to make our cities more sustainable and “smarter”?
From tomorrow until 20th February, at the Central Railway station of Palermo, adults and children will find an answer to this question visiting the car set up by Ecopneus on the TrenoVerde (GreenTrain). This is the historical itinerating campaign of Legambiente and Ferrovie dello Stato (the Italian National Railways). Ecopneus is a main partner of the event. This year the campaign is dedicated to a great global challenge: leave the era of fossil resources and stop climate change.
The third car of the train is fully dedicated to the chain of End-of-Life Tyre (ELT) recovery and recycling of Ecopneus. The rubber a tyre is made of is, indeed, a material of great quality used to make “silent”, safe and long-lasting asphalts, football pitches, multi-purpose sports surfaces, soundproofing panels, urban furniture objects, energy, and much more.
Inside the car, visitors will find a comfortable floor made with over 1,000 kg of recycled rubber, which has been shaped and coloured to reproduce some of its main applications, such as: tennis courts, cycle lanes, or athletics tracks. Illustrations, games, and installations will lead children and adults along an educative path to personally understand the importance of a correct recycling of ELTs and the multiple applications of recycled rubber.
Giovanni Corbetta, General Manager of Ecopneus stated: “Taking part to the TrenoVerde journey – for Ecopneus, it is its third year in a row – is an excellent occasion to show the value and the importance of ELT recycling to the many students and citizens involved, by the means of many fields of applications of this amazing material: from anti-shock mats for playgrounds for the youngest children, to roads; from football and volleyball courts of the school gyms, to bollards; from benches and flower boxes, to insulation materials for the building sector. We dedicate great attention to education, because the culture of environmental protection must be a central value, especially for the younger generations, who are tomorrow’s adult citizens”.
During school year 2017/18, in collaboration with Legambiente, Ecopneus promoted an educational project that saw the involvement of over 360 classes all over Region Sicily.
The students were invited to create a video on the topics of legality and the importance of the correct recycling of ELTs. Sports surfaces and recycled rubber urban furniture were awarded to the winning schools: a prize to reward the students’ effort and a concrete sign of the importance of the correct recovery of ELTs.
Ecopneus collected and managed 17,863 tonnes of ELTs in Sicily in 2018. At provincial level, 5,098 tonnes were collected in the province of Catania, 3,113 t in the one of Messina, 2,630 in Palermo, 1,466 t in Siracusa, 1,433 t in Trapani, 1,272 t in Ragusa, 1,049 t in Agrigento, 1,010 t in Caltanissetta, and 792 t in the Province of Enna.
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