Several provinces and cities have declared war on VOCs. Will this time, the tire industry also suffer?

Recently, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has strengthened the supervision and management of volatile organic pollutants (VOCs), and has successively exposed a number of typical cases. It is known that since this year, many provinces and cities, such as Shandong, Shanxi, and Zhejiang, have declared war on VOCs, which are the "invisible killers of the atmosphere". Will the tire industry, which has suffered severe environmental penalties in the past, suffer even more this time and be injured again?

VOCs are one of the components of haze particles, seriously threatening human health and environmental safety. In recent years, the emission of VOCs in China has been increasing year by year, and industry is the key area of VOCs emissions, accounting for more than 50% of the total. To strengthen industrial exhaust gas treatment, the state and localities have all introduced a series of emission restrictions policies for volatile organic compounds.

The tire industry will become a key control area for VOCs

Recently, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the "Volatile Organic Compound (VOCs) Unorganized Emission Control Standard" (draft for comments), seeking opinions from relevant industries on the emission standards. According to this draft, new enterprises should have the average concentration of volatile organic compounds at monitoring points within the factory area not exceeding 10mg/m³ for any 1 hour; the average concentration of volatile organic compounds at the enterprise boundary should not exceed 4mg/m³ for any one hour starting from July 1, 2019 for existing enterprises. 

If this control standard is implemented, it will have a significant impact on the entire tire industry. Because the rubber tire industry is a sector with a large amount of volatile organic emissions, and the production process is highly polluting, it will become a key controlled industry for VOCs. According to media reports, several provinces have been eyeing this and have launched the battle against VOCs... 

In Guangdong, 2,000 environmental law enforcement officers were stationed in 9 cities for a 9-month (from June 2017 to February 2018) special inspection of air and water pollution.

Zhejiang has declared war on the "invisible killer of the atmosphere", mainly focusing on regions such as Ningbo, Taizhou, and Wenzhou, and promoting the reduction of VOCs emissions in key industries such as chemical engineering.

The largest action to control air pollution in Jiujiu began, focusing on 13 enterprises, covering six major categories including rubber and plastic product industries. Zhejiang Yuelong Latex Products Co., Ltd. is included. It needs to pass the acceptance by the end of the year, otherwise it will be shut down.

Taiyuan City has released the VOCs control plan for key industries and a list of 90 key treatment enterprises! By the end of October, all VOCs (volatile organic compounds) emissions in the rubber and other industries should be fully completed.

Tire manufacturers have suffered criticism and fines due to air pollution

In May, 23 inspection teams of the Ministry of Environmental Protection inspected 4,328 enterprises and found that 3,016 enterprises had environmental problems, accounting for 69.7% of the total. Among them, Tangshan Zhongyuan Tire Co., Ltd. was criticized by the Ministry of Environmental Protection for not installing VOCs (volatile organic compounds) pollution control facilities.

And in Shandong, 89 environmental problems were reported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, involving 103 enterprises. Among them, 10 enterprises and 2 enterprise clusters had inadequate control of volatile organic pollutants, mainly involving unregulated oil vapor recovery management at gas stations, unorganized emissions of organic waste gas in the paint mixing process of building materials companies and furniture industries, direct emissions of volatile organic waste gas from rubber production enterprises and plastic particle manufacturing processes, etc. 

In addition, tire manufacturers have also frequently been subject to environmental penalties. Since 2016, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Guangrao County, Dongying City, Shandong Province, has imposed penalties on 23 tire, rubber-related enterprises. Among them, some enterprises were punished for failing to take measures to prevent the emission of foul-smelling gases, including Dongying Huanghai Tire Co., Ltd., Shandong Xingda Tire Co., Ltd., Kaodi Rubber Factory in Guangrao County, Dongfang Rubber Factory in Guangrao County, Haishengyuan Rubber and Plastics Co., Ltd. in Guangrao County, Hengxin Rubber Factory in Guangrao County, Shandong Haoyu Rubber Co., Ltd., and Guangtai Rubber Co., Ltd. in Guangrao County.

If enterprises fail to meet the pollution control standards, they will be shut down.

Recently, Shandong Province released the "Shandong Manufacturing Development Plan (2016-2020)", and it is estimated that this plan mentions the development goals of the tire industry in multiple places. According to the plan, by improving energy consumption and pollutant emission standards, strictly enforcing special emission limits, increasing law enforcement and punishment efforts, and accelerating the elimination of a certain number of backward production capacities, it will be achieved. Strictly implement environmental protection, energy consumption, quality, safety, technology and other laws and regulations and industrial policies. For enterprises (equipment or production lines) that do not meet the requirements, they will be ordered to make rectifications within a specified period. If they still fail to meet the requirements within the prescribed period, they will be forcibly shut down in accordance with the law and regulations.

It is reported that the current supervision and management standards for atmospheric pollutants such as VOCs in the rubber tire industry mainly follow the "Pollutant Emission Standards for Rubber Products Industry" (GB27632-2011). According to this standard, rubber product industries include tires, motorcycle tires, bicycle tires, rubber hoses, rubber belts, rubber shoes, latex products and other rubber products, but do not include tire refurbishing and recycled rubber production enterprises. 

Emission limits for atmospheric pollutants of existing enterprises

Overall, the environmental protection supervision situation is becoming stricter. Due to the weak environmental protection awareness of the rubber tire industry and the presence of many "small, scattered, unregulated and polluting" enterprises, as well as the difficulty of transformation and upgrading, it has become the focus of environmental protection rectification, resulting in "severe losses". At present, transformation and upgrading is an urgent task. Rubber tire enterprises should enhance and practice environmental protection awareness, conduct targeted environmental upgrades first, and then seek government assistance to achieve in-depth transformation and upgrading.