Investigating a Circular Economy Application: Reuse of End of Life Tire Fibers in a Plastic Compound

According to the European Waste Codes 19.12.08, fibers derived from end-of-life tires (ELT) are classifies as a special waste to be sent to landfill or incineration with energy recovery. However, these activities would pose additional risks including soil pollution, and groundwater contamination. A change in the current ELT waste management practices is needed to reduce the environmental impacts. The aim of this paper is to present and investigate the technical and environmental feasibility of a circular economy path for ELT fibers. Several PP-based compounds have been manufactured and tested to verify the possibility of reusing ELT fibers in such an application. Then a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study has been carried out to compare the proposed reuse scenario with the two standard scenarios for ELT fibers. Reuse scenario leads to environmental savings for several impact categories, even if for some indicators the incineration is preferrable due to the additional resources and energy required needed to treat the dirty ELT fibers before reuse.