The move comes at a time when no UK legislation exists demanding tyre manufacturers take responsibility for their products at the end of their life cycle, something Michelin has campaigned for.
It is expected that Charles Lawrence will receive around 200 tonnes of end of life and reject casings a week (10,000 tonnes pa) from Michelin. It will also handle materials from Michelin's Ballymena factory, making the Northern Irish site the first of its kind to have all its factory waste fully recycled. The tyres will be cut up using custom built machinery, have the reinforcing steel and bead wire removed (which is passed to the scrap trade for recycling) and then chopped again into granules which are used as the base of Charles Lawrence's patented 'Playtop' play area surfaces.
The deal will be of great benefit to both parties, as Charles Lawrence International Managing Director Roger Hicks explains:
"The formal agreement to take a minimum of 6,000 tonnes of Michelin tyres per year comes after extensive trialling and a lot of discussion. We needed to be sure we could take a consistent amount of tyres each week so that we had a secure supply of materials and so Michelin could find other uses for the old tyres we can't use – which I know they have done. The figure is a minimum standard and we would realistically expect to be taking at least 10,000 tonnes per year."
The Charles Lawrence scheme is the latest in a long line undertaken by Michelin aimed at reducing the impact its global activity has on the planet. The company has just released the latest edition of its Performance Responsibility Charter, which lays out its approach to corporate and social accountability and how employees are expected to help. Michelin is taking a leading role in the recycling of used tyres in the UK and Ireland, as UK Managing Director Jim Rickard confirms:
"Michelin has a global strategy for minimising the effect we have on the environment, and although there is no legal need to do it, we see recycling our end of life tyres as a moral obligation. Charles Lawrence is a world leader in the sector and we are very pleased to have secured an agreement to put what is effectively our waste to good use. Through our Sapphire joint venture we dispose of hundreds of thousands of car tyres every year, and now a substantial amount of truck tyres will also be taken care of."
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