Application of material from used car tyres in geotechnics-an environmental impact analysis

Aleksander Duda; Małgorzata Kida; Sabina Ziembowicz; Piotr Koszelnik

doi:10.7717/peerj.9546

Application of material from used car tyres in geotechnics-an environmental impact analysis

PeerJ. 2020 Jul 20:8:e9546. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9546. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Aleksander Duda¹, Małgorzata Kida², Sabina Ziembowicz², Piotr Koszelnik²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Roads and Bridges, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, Rzeszow University of Technology, Rzeszow, Poland.
² Department of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, Rzeszow University of Technology, Rzeszow, Poland.

Abstract

This work begins with a literature-based discussion of the hazardous-waste problem represented by car tyres as hazardous waste, along with possible ways in which they might be utilised or managed. The impact of the material on the environment is characterised in the process, not least in the context of pollutants leached to the aquatic environment. Input in terms of new research results concerns the impact on water and soil of material from used car tyres being used in geotechnics. Specifically, tyre bales comprising 100-140 car vehicle tyres compressed into a lightweight block and secured by galvanised steel tie wires running around the length and depth of the bale, were researched, having been immersed in basins with alkaline and acidic water following initial preparation and pre-washing. The aim was to in some sense simulate-respectively-conditions in which rain and surface/ground water are involved, or else acid rain. To do that, the tyre bales were placed in the water for 120 days, with emerging leachate analysed after set intervals of time, with a view to changes in key physicochemical parameters of water being noted, as well as signs of the leaching of both undesirable components and priority substances, from tyres into the aqueous medium. Washing of the tyre bales was shown to induce slight pollution of water, with limited exceedance of normative values in respect of OWO content. However, this increase was not due to leaching of the Persistent Organic Pollutants tested for, but may rather have reflected contamination of tyres used, e.g., of soil at the place of previous storage. In general, waste water arising does not therefore contain substances that would stand in the way (legally) of its being discharged into a combined sewer system. Similar conclusions were arrived at through analysis of the leaching of pollutants from tyre bales exposed in the aforementioned pools of water of neutral and acidic reaction. Wastewater arising was not enriched significantly in impurities (be these metals, PAHs, phthalates, selected anions or cations), and there were therefore no exceedances of standards imposed for wastewater discharged to either waters or soil.

Keywords: Building material; Environment; Groundwater; Pollutant leaching; Rainwater; Research project; Tyre bales; Tyre recycling.

Grants and funding

This research has been carried out under the project called “ReUse—Innovative Recycling Materials, Enhancing the Sustainability of Bridge Facilities” (Innotech No. K3/IN3/38/228116/NCBiR/15), co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and implemented by the consortium of Promost Consulting Rzeszow (leader of consortium), Remost Debica, Geotech Rzeszow and Rzeszow University of Technology. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.