Glossary
The terms of the end-of-life tyre and recycling trade, briefly explained.
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Anyone buying or selling in this industry trips over abbreviations, standards and association names. Here they are, explained in one line each — with no claim to legal completeness, but enough to follow the conversation.
A
- Annex VII
- Accompanying document for shipments of green-listed waste under the EU Waste Shipment Regulation. Names consignor, carrier, consignee, waste type, quantity and recovery operation.
- AVV
- Abfallverzeichnis-Verordnung (German list of wastes ordinance). Sets the six-digit waste codes by which every waste type is designated — end-of-life tyres, for example, 16 01 03.
B
- Bale
- Block of material compressed and bound in a hydraulic press. With end-of-life tyres it is what allows a container to be loaded up to its payload instead of only up to its volume.
- Basel Convention
- Treaty under international law controlling transboundary movements of waste. It assigns wastes to lists and codes; end-of-life tyres carry the code B3140.
- Beförderungserlaubnis (waste carrier permit)
- Official permit for the commercial collection and transport of waste.
- Bulk density
- Mass of a loose bulk material per unit of volume, usually in kg/m³. Together with the stowage factor it determines how well a container is used.
- bvse
- Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung (German federal association for secondary raw materials and waste management). Trade body of the mid-sized recycling and waste industry, with its own specialist section for tyres and rubber.
C
- Calorific value
- Energy content of a fuel per unit of mass, usually given as the net calorific value (NCV) in MJ/kg. In international trade kcal/kg and BTU/lb are also used.
- Carbon black
- Filler in the tyre compound; once recovered from pyrolysis it is called rCB (recovered carbon black).
- Casing
- The load-bearing structure of a tyre. An intact casing with a worn tread can be retreaded and is therefore worth considerably more than an end-of-life tyre.
- Cement rotary kiln
- Kiln type used in cement production. It takes substitute fuels; the steel content of tyre material is bound into the clinker.
- Circular economy
- Economic model that keeps materials in circulation for as long as possible through re-use, repair and recycling.
- Contraries
- Foreign constituents in a fraction that obstruct further processing or breach the specification. German: Störstoffe.
D
- Devulcanisation
- Process in which the sulphur bridges in vulcanised rubber are deliberately broken so that the material can be processed again.
E
- eANV
- Elektronisches Abfallnachweisverfahren (electronic waste record procedure). Mandatory German system for documenting the disposal of wastes subject to record-keeping.
- EBS
- Ersatzbrennstoff (substitute fuel). German term for processed, high-calorific fractions from non-hazardous waste; internationally SRF.
- EN ISO 21640
- Standard for the classification of solid recovered fuels. It maps calorific value, chlorine and mercury content into five classes each; the three classes together give the class code.
- End-of-life tyre (ELT)
- Tyre that is no longer fit for its original purpose because of wear, ageing or damage and therefore counts as waste. German: Altreifen.
- Energy recovery
- Use of the energy content of a waste by burning it in a plant permitted for that purpose.
- Entsorgungsfachbetrieb (certified waste management company)
- Company certified under section 56 KrWG. The certification is audited annually and is a precondition in many tenders.
- ETRMA
- European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers Association. European association of tyre and rubber manufacturers; publishes statistics on end-of-life tyre arisings.
- EuRIC
- European Recycling Industries Confederation. Umbrella body of the European recycling industry.
F
- FCL
- Full container load. A load in which a container is used for one single consignment.
G
- Grade purity
- Share of the target material in a fraction. With plastics it is the most important factor in the price.
- Green-listed waste
- Waste whose shipment for recovery is normally subject only to the information procedure and needs no prior official consent.
- Gross weight
- Combined weight of the cargo and the container. Gross weight less tare gives the permitted payload.
H
- High cube
- Container with extra internal height. With baled material it often allows one more layer and therefore better utilisation.
I
- Incoterms
- International trade terms issued by the ICC. They govern who carries transport, insurance, customs clearance and risk — FCA, FOB, CIF or DAP, for example.
- Information procedure
- Simplified procedure for shipping green-listed waste for recovery. The consignment travels with the Annex VII document.
K
- KrWG
- Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz (German Circular Economy Act). The central German waste act; among other things it governs the notification and permit duties of collectors, carriers, dealers and brokers.
M
- M+S
- Marking for tyres suitable for winter or all-season use (mud and snow). A relevant sorting category in the part-worn tyre trade.
- Material recycling
- Recovery in which the material itself is kept — as opposed to energy recovery, where it is burned.
N
- Notification
- Procedure of prior written notification and consent. Every authority involved has to consent before transport; in addition a financial guarantee and a contract have to be evidenced.
P
- PAH
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Group of substances subject to limit values in products with skin or consumer contact — relevant for rubber granulate in sports and play surfaces. German: PAK.
- Post-consumer
- Waste arising after use by the end consumer. Usually more heterogeneous and more contaminated than post-industrial material.
- Post-industrial
- Waste from production, before consumption. As a rule cleaner and purer in grade than material from household collection.
- Pyrolysis
- Thermochemical breakdown of end-of-life tyres in the absence of oxygen. Yields pyrolysis oil, gas and recovered carbon black.
R
- rCB
- Recovered carbon black. Carbon black recovered from tyre pyrolysis, which can partly replace virgin black.
- Retreading
- Applying a new tread to an inspected casing. It extends the life of the tyre considerably.
- Rubber granulate
- Rubber in a defined particle size obtained by shredding end-of-life tyres, after steel and textile have been separated out.
- Rubber powder
- Finely ground rubber granulate. Used as a filler and as a compound ingredient.
S
- Secondary raw material
- Raw material obtained from waste by processing, which replaces primary raw material.
- SRF
- Solid recovered fuel. Solid substitute fuel from non-hazardous waste, classified to EN ISO 21640.
- Stowage factor
- Volume that one tonne of cargo takes up on the vessel, given in m³/t. German: Stauraumbedarf.
T
- Tare
- Own weight of the empty container. Gross weight less tare gives the permitted payload.
- TDF
- Tyre-derived fuel. Substitute fuel recovered from end-of-life tyres, mainly for cement and lime kilns.
- Tread depth
- Remaining depth of the tyre tread in millimetres. The most important sorting criterion in the part-worn tyre trade.
V
- Vulcanisation
- Process in which rubber is permanently cross-linked with sulphur. The reason why rubber cannot simply be melted down again.
W
- Waste hierarchy
- Order of priority under the Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz (German Circular Economy Act): prevention before preparation for re-use, before recycling, before other recovery, before disposal.
Z
- ZARE
- Initiative zertifizierter Altreifenentsorger (initiative of certified end-of-life tyre disposal companies). Association of Entsorgungsfachbetriebe (certified waste management companies) in the tyre sector.
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