Tire refurbishment expects policy to open roads to bottlenecks

“The technology for refurbishing and recycling used tires in China is increasing, but there is still a big gap compared to the international advanced level. Due to the lack of substantive support for relevant policies, the industry has now reached a bottleneck. As a domestic tire retreading Shandong, the largest province, performed particularly well."

"Real Gold and Silver" is out of reach

Relevant data show that since 2000, the average annual growth rate of tire retreading in China has reached 11%, and it has now become a tire refurbishment country following the United States, India, the European Union, and Brazil. However, compared with the international advanced level, there are still many problems that need to be resolved. Zhang Hongmin stated that the most prominent of these is that the relevant policies and regulations are still relatively backward, and there is no established incentive mechanism to encourage the recycling, processing, and reuse of used tires. The "real money, silver, silver, and silver" that are expected by companies such as tax reduction and subsidies are even more important. Nowhere in sight.

In fact, as early as 2005, China put the recycling of used tires on the agenda. The State Council, in its "Notice on Doing a Good Job in Building a Conservation-Oriented Society in the Near Future" and "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Circular Economy," have clearly listed the recycling of used tires as a key industry for the use of renewable resources. Since then, the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" has also proposed the establishment of a producer responsibility extension system to promote the recycling of used tires. On January 16, 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" Guidelines for Comprehensive Utilization of Resources, and listed the industrialization of waste tires and other renewable resources as one of the six key projects for comprehensive utilization of resources, while also disposing of used tires. The "Regulations on Recycling and Utilization" was included in the 2007 legislation and will provide strong support in taxation, funds and other aspects.

However, unfortunately, most of the "planning" and "opinions" mentioned above remain at the document level and lack substantive support. The “Regulations for the Management of Waste Tire Recycling and Utilization”, which has been highly hoped for by the industry, is still in the consultation stage for various reasons.

In addition, due to lack of supervision, the entire industry order is not standardized enough. Many companies have reported that although they have production capacity, due to poor access, old tires that can be refurbished are difficult to recycle. In addition to legally reclaimed rubber and rubber powder manufacturing companies competing for old tire sources, there are also illegal false tire retreading and “repelling robbery” by local refining companies, which makes it difficult for tire retreaders to establish a stable supply chain for used tires. Impeded the development of the industry.

“The phenomenon of small, chaotic and poor tire retreading enterprises is still relatively common and it is difficult to form scale advantages.” Zhang Hongmin, chairman of Shandong Rubber Industry Association, said that at present, more than 80% of the enterprises engaged in tire renewal are SMEs. The annual production of these companies' retreaded tires is generally between 10,000 and 20,000, and few of them have reached more than 100,000. In our province, even the largest triangular tires have an annual production capacity of less than 300,000, while a U.S. company's annual tire volume can reach 20 million, accounting for 25% of the total number of tires in the world. In 2010, China produced about 250 million scrap tires, but the refurbishment rate was only about 3%, not only far below the world’s largest tire refurbishment country—the US’s renovation rate of about 14%, and also less than 6%. World average.

"Seeing outwards" for reference

“In order to protect the environment, many countries have successively enacted legislation to establish specialized agencies and implement encouraging policies to promote the recycling of used tires. These experiences are worth learning from.” Zhang Hongmin cited the example. The Finnish government introduced the recycling of used tires in June 1996. The use of a special act stipulates that manufacturers producing and selling tires are responsible for recycling used tires so that used tires can be reused. South Africa has recently launched a new initiative to impose taxes on all locally manufactured and imported tires from February 1 this year. The tax rate is 2.30 rand (equivalent to 0.3 US dollars) per kilogram for recycling used tires.

Professor Ji Kuijiang, a senior expert in waste rubber application research in China and professor at Qingdao University of Science and Technology, expressed the same view.