Lansink’s ladder

Environmentally-friendly processing of used tyres

Lansink’s ladder shows the preference on how to deal with used tyres in the Netherlands. The higher the method of processing is on the ladder, the better it is for the environment. The ladder is the Dutch standard for the optimal management of waste flows.

One step higher on the ladder with RecyBEM

Prevention has the highest priority. One step lower is re-use. Re-using allows a tyre to be returned to the market. Another step lower is recycling. With recycling, the raw materials are recovered from used car tyres. Where re-use and recycling are not an option, we aim to burn waste and recover the energy (incineration +). The least desirable solutions are incineration without recovering energy, landfill and dumping.

RecyBEM operates the following flows:

  • Re-use as a second-hand tyre
  • Retreading
  • Alternative re-use
  • Re-use of materials through recycling
  • Thermal re-use with a high yield

When these flows are translated into the categories of Lansink’s ladder, re-use as a second-hand tyre, retreading where a usable carcass is given a new profile, and re-use for an alternative purpose fall within the re-use category. Material re-use is the same as recycling. Thermal re-use with a high yield is ultimately the same as incineration with energy recovery (incineration +).

We collect some eight million used tyres in the Netherlands every year. Most of these tyres are recycled and re-used as materials. You can find out about how we process the tyres that are collected in the explanation on the ladder.