Environmental balance of non-reusable waste tyres valorization solutions (PUNR)

Aliapur is the main collective body in charge of recovering used tires in France, representing almost 75% of the annual waste, i.e. some 300,000 tonnes.

As with any sector born of the implementation of the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR), Aliapur's primary objective is to ensure, on behalf of its customers, that used tires are collected, sorted and recycled in an environmentally-friendly way, in order to neutralize the environmental risk that used tires can represent in France.

But the eco-organization's ambitions go beyond strict compliance with regulatory obligations. Since its creation, Aliapur's aim has been to encourage the emergence of a structured industrial economy that creates environmental, economic and societal value from the many potentialities offered by non-reusable used tires (ELT): calorific value, carbon and steel content, proportion of rubber of biomass origin, and so on.

The first few years of Aliapur's existence were devoted to professionalizing the sector by disseminating and consolidating best practices and know-how, creating recognized methods (sampling and characterization) and defining reference values, thus enabling us to offer safe products tailored to users' needs.

The eco-organization is also committed to seeking out new ways of recovering waste, with the aim of ensuring that sufficient outlets are always available, and that management remains flexible.

In terms of human health and the environment, major research programs have been devoted to environmental and health risk assessment, as well as to environmental assessments based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology.