§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the environmental impact of(a) retread and (b) new tyres, using a life-cycle analysis approach. [99235]
§ Mr. MeacherIn 2001, BLIC (the liaison office of the European rubber industry) produced a life cycle analysis of car tyres. The report did not specify the environmental load of retreaded tyres, but did highlight the importance of rolling resistance as a factor in determining its benefits.
Retreaded tyres, nevertheless, would seem to offer a number of advantages as an end-of-life recovery option because of the reduced requirement for raw materials in their manufacture, as compared with new tyres, and by
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1 January to 31 December 2001 HCI S02 NOx CO PM Cd and TI Hg Other Metals1 HF Dioxins VOCs2 NH32 Total Dudley (MES) 10 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - - 13 Wolverhampton (MES) 4 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 - - 9 Billingham (SITA) 1 1 2 20 1 0 0 0 0 0 - - 25 Coventry (C and S WDC) 29 2 3 57 3 0 0 0 0 0 - - 94 Tyseley (Onyx) 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - 3 Nottingham (WRE) 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - 6 Sheffield (Onyx) 14 1 0 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - 36 Stoke (MES) 12 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - 15 providing the tyre with another life, thereby reducing the numbers of new tyres needed, and subsequently requiring disposal.
The Department of Trade and Industry has recently commissioned a further study to examine the environmental credentials of tyre retreading.