The Problem

According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's (WBCSD) Tire Industry Project (TIP), the world is projected to generate approximately 1 billion end-of-life tires each year. There are 11.8 million registered vehicles in Nigeria according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Not less than 720,000 new vehicles are purchased every year. In 2020, the NBS puts the figure of imported vehicles at 1.3 million. This, when coupled, with unofficial figures shows that Nigeria has a huge tyre market. The high consumption patterns of tyres has caused increase in the generation of scrap tyres. When tyres cease to perform their original function and have exhausted all re-use options, they become waste products and are disposed into the environment. In Nigeria, the common ways of disposing used tyres are landfilling, stockpiling and burning in open fields. Modern tyres are made of synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric, wire, carbon black and other chemical compounds that makes them non-biodegrable and difficult to decay when disposed. Stockpiling and burning of used tyres results to environmental pollution.

For instance, when tyres are stockpiled, they tend to collect water and thereby provide suitable breeding grounds for malaria causing mosquitoes. Burning tyres on the other hand is an ephemeral solution to the scrap tyres menace with long term negative environmental impacts. Burning of scrap tyres is a major occurrence in Nigeria. Scrap tyres are burned during festivities as roasting materials in abattoirs and used in extrajudicial killings. This process generates thick black toxic smoke and large quantities of hazardous gaseous emissions. The thick black smoke and toxic residues emiitted during this process release toxins that contamines soil quality, ground water and surface water. Burning of tyres causes emissions of sulphurdioxide to rise tenfold and emissions of dust particles to increase by 500%. These air borne toxins have carcinogenic and mutagenic effects, that is, it can cause cancer and gene mutation. Generally, the emissions released during burning of scrap tyres destroy the atmosphere, contribute to climate change and endangers public health and safety.

Challenges

Field investigations by UTPRON found that Nigeria has a fairly organized informal collection, transportation and recycling system for scrap tyres. There is high level of ignorance among the public on the dangers of waste tyres. 7 out of 10 persons are unaware of the importance and methods of adopting green and eco-friendly measures of waste tyre recycling. There is no properly designed system of waste tyre collection and difficulty in finding tyre recycling plants and centers has made the unconventional ways of disposing waste tyres to thrive.

Our Solution

The scrap tyre pollution menace can be addressed through a comprehensive Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) initiative that engages producers and manufacturers to lead, promote and implement the adoption of green or eco-friendly tyre waste recycling measures. We will set up a waste management initiative based on an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system to achieve the goal of safer environments through eco-friendly tyre waste recycling measures. This inititative is built on the realization that the problem must be reduced from the source and producers must take responsibility. Consequently, we will work with producers and manufacturers and a network of tyre wholesalers, distributors, retailers, NGOs, research institutes and vulcanizers to achieve the following objectives:

• Proper used-tyres recycling in Nigeria so as to reduce the environmental damage and health hazards that comes with landfilling, stockpiling and burning, guaranteeing sustainable development in the process.
• Employment of thousands of persons and spearheading the creation of tyre recycling dependent businesses.
• Improved awareness on the dangers of improper disposal of used tyres among the public.
• Build a formidable alliance between producers, processors, recyclers, not-for-profits organizations, transporters, vehicle owners, government and all stakeholders in the campaign against the scrap tyre menace in Nigeria.