End-of-life tires

G. Haines, M. McCulloch and R. Wong in End-of-Life Tire Management LCA - A Comparative Analysis for Alberta Recycling Management Authority, The Pemhina Institute, Calgary, Canada, 2010. 

Managing End-of-Life Tires, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva, Switzerland, November 2008. 

Design products to only release benign materials into the environment. This is not easy. For example, both brake pad dust and material from car tires is highly eco-toxic. Design the product for containment or destruction before end of life of any hazardous materials. 

Minor webs of cracks in the sidewall are likely not a major concern, but any crack that threatens to pull apart the rubber signals the end of a tire s life. Likewise, look for bubbles and bulges, which are also dangerous signs that the air inside your tire is close to getting out. 

At the end of its useful life, the tire, with its hydrocarbon-based constituents, is a valuable source of energy, with a higher energy value than coal. By the mid-1990s, approximately 80 percent of the tires worn out annually in the United States were being recycled, recovered, or reused in some fashion, with three-fourths of these seiwing as fuel for energy production m boilers and cement kilns. 

New processes using carbon dioxide will provide alternate methods for manufacturing chemical intermediates used to produce building materials, motor vehicles, tires, paper, plastics, apparel, fertilizer, furniture, and appliances. Essentially, all of these products are sequestered because at the end of their useful life they end up in landfills. The carbon from fertilizers ends up in plant tissue and will eventually be released to the atmosphere. 

He stunned his brother when he said, Tm going to end my life and you will be the executor of my estate. His brother didn t believe that he would carry out the threat. He told his wife I am tired of fighting. He refused hospitalization, saying it felt like "incarceration to him. One month later, immediately after leaving his psychiatrist s office, he slipped away from his wife and jumped to his death from the ninth floor of his Manhattan apartment building (2006). 

Polarity helps determine many of the properties of substances that we observe at the macroscopic level, in tire laboratory and in everyday life. Polar molecules align themselves with respect to each other and with respect to ions. The negative end of one molecule and tire positive end of another attract each other. Polar molecules are likewise attracted to ions. The negative end of a polar molecule is attracted to a positive ion, and the positive end is attracted to a negative ion. These interactions accormt for many properties of liquids, solids, and solutions, as you will see in Chapters 11,12, and 13. 

The concept of producer responsibility is now an accepted part of the UK waste management process. Basically, it is an extended version of the polluter pays principle, placing responsibility for the environmental impact of a product onto tire producer of the product. The intention is to prevent pollution, reduce use of energy and other resources throughout the life cycle of the product by better design and production. It encourages all stakeholders involved in the production and sale of products to ensure that products are recovered and recycled at the end of their life. Initially in 1997, producer responsibility was applied to packaging but has since been extended to other areas such as waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, vehicles and tyres. 

Device manufacturers measure battery runtime with a perfect pack, a condition that exists only for a short time. Capacity fade begins as soon as the battery leaves the factory. Unlike a mechanical device that displays wear and tear with use, a battery does not change physical shape whether fuUy charged or empty, nor does it disclose its age. A car tire, on the other hand, distorts when low on air it shows signs of wear and indicates that it is reaching the end of its life when the treads are worn down. 

Economics and price of the final article often dictate a specific type of mbber that can be used. The expected usable life for the product is controlled by many factors including end customer awareness, competitive situation in the marketplace, safety, reUabiUty, and other factors. Rubber is almost always used as a functional part of another system. For example tires, hoses, belts, O-rings, and numerous mbber components are used in manufacturing automobiles and tmcks. The overall life of the vehicle as well as its performance level often control or direcdy relate to the service life or quaUty level of the mbber parts. 

Mai, is this too much for you I said, after a while. You know Hartwell is waiting for you. Not that my father s bailiff is not content to manage it as part of the Grafton lands. But I think you would like to have the managing of it yourself. And court life is—is something any woman tires of in the end. ... 

It was 2010 and old men regretted that we had not lived up to Arthur C. Clarke s prophecy. Herman Poole was 82 and Malcolm Caswell was 52. The memory device had been perfected. Herman was tired. Ten years ago he had felt that the secret was about to be uncovered. Now he was ready for the game to end. He had managed a ninth marriage to one of the scientists. He had divorced her when he realized that she had been motivated by pity rather than greed. He would have ended the quest, but had no other life to go to. All he had was momentum. 

At Bayer, we believe our responsibility does not end when we place our materials on a truck, barge or train for transport to the customer. Even when the product is in the hands of the customer, it is part of our commitment to product stewardship and the Responsible Care program to help ensure the product is used correctly. We provide a full complement of safety information and extensive training to our customers, whether they are manufacturing tires or administering a life-saving drug to a child. 

While there were few other noteworthy scientific developments during the life of Charles Goodyear, other inventors used the vulcanization process for the production of useful end products, such as pneumatic tires. A Scottish chemist, named Charles Macintosh, produced waterproof coats lay placing a solution of natural rubber in naphtha, between two pieces of fabric. The garment still bears his name. 

Nanocomposites have a cradle (resource extraction) and a grave (final disposal). Between the two is the life cycle. A life cyde may indude one product, but may also extend to a series of products. For instance, nanocomposite rubber tires may be subject to recyding, and thus the nanocomposite rubber material may end up in new rubber products or asphalt. 

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