Abstract
Keeping Mining Tires Out of Canada’s Waste Stream: Challenges & Opportunities
As mines place an even greater focus on doing what’s best for the environment, many are accelerating sustainability initiatives and they’re turning to one of the biggest supplies on site: earthmover tires. When a single hauler tire can weigh nearly 5,000 kilograms and has a lifespan of approximately 6,000 hours, what to do with end-of-life mining tires poses both great challenges and opportunities. What options do mines have today to help keep tires out of the waste stream? What are the future opportunities that will help the country’s mines reduce their impact and meet ever-more ambitious ESG targets? In this session, learn what it takes to keep massive tires out of landfills.
I. Existing methods of keeping tires out of the waste stream & current impact
Currently in Canada, there is no legislation mandating the recycling of mining tires, and so when a site decides to pursue this path to keeping tires out of the waste stream, it’s because they’ve elected to invest in sustainability solutions. While many in the industry expect legislation on the horizon, without it currently driving demand for tire life solutions, what options are currently available in Canada?
To keep tires out of the waste stream, many mines are doing everything they can to extend tire life through repairs and retreading. Retreading, a solution that’s been offered in Canada for nearly 50 years, keeps tires out of scrap piles by giving a second or even third life to quality OTR tire casings. The retreading process uses fewer raw materials and less production energy compared to the manufacture of a new tire—allowing mines to reduce their carbon footprint.
Repairs are another method of extending tire life, and with advancing technology, mines can now repair tires with large injuries that would have previously been sent to the scrap pile.
When a tire reaches the end of life in Canada, there are currently limited options on what to do with it. Mining tire recycling is still an emerging industry in Canada: With the size and weight of earthmover tires, and their distance from major centres, it’s a complicated, costly process. Shredding recycling, which turns mining tires into rubber-based goods such as mulch, athletic fields, sports mats, etc., is currently the only recycling option in Canada.
II. Future opportunities to keep mining tires out of the waste stream Chile recently enacted legislation mandating end-of-life solutions for mining tires. This legislation fuelled the development of a solution at the top of the recycling hierarchy: thermal conversion. The technology uses heat in the absence of oxygen to convert tires back to their base elements: carbon black, steel wire and oil so they can be reused. Kal Tire’s thermal conversion facility in Chile, which has the ability recycle five 63” tires each day, is scalable and with demand, could become viable. Learn how collaboration between government, mine operations, suppliers and other stakeholders can help make it possible to implement a solution like this.