From 10th to 12th March, installations, games, and illustrations will show the advantages of the recycling of End-of-Life tyres to students and visitors. Moreover, a new sound-absorbing asphalt modified with recycled rubber is being laid in the City of Arezzo during these days, thanks to the Project LIFE LIFE Nereide, of which Ecopneus is a partner.
Ecopneus collected about 13,352 tonnes of ELTs (End-of-Life tyres) in Tuscany in 2018. This is equivalent to the weight of almost 1.5 million automobile tyres. If we were to put them in a row, we could create a line that is about 740 km long: the distance between Arezzo and Cosenza!
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 10th to 12th March, at platform 1 of the Central Railway station of Arezzo, 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.
Moreover, the works for the resurfacing on the SRT n 71“Umbro Casentinese” have recently started in the City of Arezzo. The asphalt used is noise absorbing thanks to the use of rubber recycled from End-of-Life tyres and asphalt millings. This innovative asphalts has been developed within the scope of the LIFE Nereide project. Co-financed by the European Union, Ecopneus is among the partners of this project together with Region Tuscany, the University of Pisa, ARPA Tuscany, BRRC, and the Institute of Acoustics and Sensoristics Orso Maria Corbino. Thanks to this technology, a sharp reduction in the noise generated by the passage of the automobiles is expected, with benefits for all the inhabitants that are exposed to it. Moreover, also a reduction of air emissions during the surfacing activities is expected, thanks to the lower temperatures of asphalt production and laying. There is also greater safety thanks to the better adherence and water drainage. Other stretches of road will be created using the same technology also in the town of Castiglion Fiorentino.
Inside the Ecopneus car of the TrenoVerde, 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”.
Ecopneus collected and managed 13,352 tonnes of ELTs in Tuscany in 2018. At provincial level, 3,504 tonnes were collected in the Province of Florence, 1,606 in the one of Arezzo, 1,605 in Siena, 1,454 in Pistoia, 1,127 in Grosseto, 939 in the Province of Lucca, 889 in Livorno, 887 in Massa-Carrara, 776 in Prato, 565 tonnes in the Province of Pisa.
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