Portugal’s Valorpneu celebrates 20 years of success in ELT management
Valorpneu Turns 20
Since its launch in 2002, Portugal’s Valorpneu has managed a network of operators that collect, recover, and recycle end-of-life tyres.
By the end of 2021, Valorpneu had collected a total of 1,622,529 tons of tyres that correspond, more or less, to 145M tyres. Of these tyres, 1,570,294 tons were generated, and 52,235 tons were already in stock before the EPR scheme went into operation.
Of the 1,570,294 ton. of tyres generated, 269,930 tons (17.2%) were sent for retreading, 16,068 tons (1%) for reuse, 844,632 tons (53.8%) for recycling, 432,715 tons (27.6%) sent for energy recovery and 6,949 tons (0.4%) to other destinations, namely landfill, a destination that was allowed only for large tires until mid-2005.
In terms of the application of rubber granules derived from the recycling process, over these 20 years, synthetic lawns (41.7%) have been the priority destination, followed by various flooring materials (41%), the rubber industry (5.5%), insulation industry (5.3%), bituminous mixtures with rubber used on roads and airports (2.6%), equestrian floors (0.9%) and others (2.9%).
Valorpneu’s third license began in 2018 and was to complete at the end of 2021 but was extended until December 31, 2022, by order of the Offices of the Secretary of State for Commerce, Services and Consumer Protection and the Secretary of State for the Environment.
Climénia Silva, CEO of Valorpneu, says; “2021 was a year of recovery, with a more controlled pandemic context, a market with strong growth, profound legislative changes with an impact on EPR activity, new criteria, norms and rules to be published, a strong focus on prevention, R&D and innovation and reinforcement of the Valorpneu team.”
Valorpneu currently has 52 reception centres under contract, of which 43 are on the mainland, 1 in Madeira and 8 in the Azores.
Throughout its two decades of activity, Valorpneu has invested in research and innovation programmes for the development of new technologies and new solutions for materials derived from end-of-life tyres, enhancing the development of this sector.
Since the start of its activity, Valorpneu has invested approximately 1.7 million euros in R&D, including the Valorpneu Innovation Awards, the InovAção Award and, more recently, the NextLap Project, which this year will have its second edition. This is an innovation project, carried out in partnership with the consultancy Beta-i, specialised in the area, and which seeks large-scale solutions from the recycling of end-of-life tires, ready for the market, putting innovative “face to face”, the industry and ‘experts’. We thus continue to contribute to a more sustainable future.
