Environmental impact of shredded tyres as embankment fill material

Abstract

The first studies on the environmental impact of used tyres when used in civil engineering date back to the end of the 1970s. Since then, detection methods and the sensitivity thresholds of measuring systems have evolved considerably, as has knowledge of the consequences of the various compounds. The study presented here completes and updates these data, on a very wide range of potentially releasable compounds, with more efficient measuring means. Tests of percolation, leaching and in a lysimeter were performed on the raw material as well as on the residue resulting from fire. The liquids were subject of physico-chemical analyses, considering 200 compounds, and ecotoxicological analyses on a shellfish and a bacterium. Measurements reveal a very limited consequence on the environment, except in the case of fire, where residues must be considered as hazardous wastes.