Kouei Industries International - Pyrolysis Recycling Systems & the Zero Waste Goal

Zero Waste is a goal and a process that involves individuals, communities, businesses, and local, provincial and federal governments. It leads to a future where trash is a thing of the past. A time when garbage trucks no longer rumble down neighborhood streets. Solid waste isn't managed or hidden in landfills but seen and used as a resource. Through redesign, reduction, reuse, repair, reclaiming, recycling, composting and other activities, we create local employment and sustainable economic development instead of garbage. Zero Waste is a vision for the future and a vision we share at Kouei Industries Inc.

We must learn how to decrease consumption and to turn our current waste into new resources. Only by beginning to "close the loop" can we hope to develop a sustainable economy. It depends on designing products and industrial processes so that their components can be dismantled, repaired and recycled. It means linking communities, businesses and industries so that one's waste becomes another's feedstock. It means preventing pollution at its source. It means new jobs in communities throughout British Columbia and the world. Only through encouraging education, leading by example and showing the alternatives, can we "close the loop" on sustainability.

Written by Brian Grant, Zero Waste is a publication of the Regional District
of Nanaimo. http://www.rcbc.bc.ca

Tire Recycling Facts:

• Number of scrap tires generated annually in the United States (2000): 273 million
• Approximate weight of these scrap tires: 3.6 million tons
• Percentage of total solid wastes generated: (2000): 1.8%
• Number of recycled tires used for fuel (2000): 125 million
• Recycled tires processed into ground rubber (2000): 18 million
• BTU's per pound of recycled tire rubber: 15,000
• Number of states that ban whole tires from landfills: 33
• Number of states that ban all scrap tires from landfills: 12
• Number of states with no landfill restrictions: 5
• Oil (equivalency) in a passenger car tire: 7 gallons
• Percentage of scrap tires recycled annually in the United States (1989): 10% Capture Rate
• Percentage of scrap tires recycled annually in the United States (2003): 80% Capture Rate
• Approximate number of scrap tires stockpiled in the United States (2003): 3 Billion
• Number of scrap tires discarded per day in Texas 55,000