A new technology for the disposal of worn car tires

An enormous quantity of used tires are produced worldwide, many of which are landfilled. However the bulkiness of scrap tires creates major problems for their disposal in landfill sites. An alternative option from both an operational and economic standpoint is to dismantle and recycle both the steel wire and rubber. Waterjet is a potentially suitable technology for achieving this goal. An experimental investigation has been conducted on conventional car tires at DIGITA's waterjet laboratories with the aim of obtaining useful correlations for rubber removal rate as a function of the main operating parameters (pressure and water flow rate, nozzle exit velocity, stand-off distance). Based on the results of these experiments, the technical and economic aspects concerning this technology are evaluated.