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production for foreign manufactur- ers is easier than exporting tyres to Southeast Asia. Furthermore, Indo- advantage over other countries in this regard, owing to its enormous rubber-growing area. Thailand is the largest producer and exporter of natural rubber in the world, produc- ing about 3 million tonnes a year, accounting for up to 40 per cent of worldwide supply. Indonesia pro- duced around 2.88 metric tonnes of
This growing demand for natural rubber is critical. Sustainability of natural rubber production for tyre manufacturers equates to sustain- ing the rubber plantations, making - narios where the low paid plantation workers want to stay on the land and farm rubber – for, without the tappers, the rubber industry faces an existential crisis.
So, this sustainability of rubber pro- duction could not be undermined by recycled rubber in the form of de- vulcanised rubber; though there are devulc operators in the region.
level of tyre arisings in the region
as no country in the area appears to have established an EPR scheme nor imposed any restrictions on the disposal of tyres.
Research suggests that Malaysia did put forward a White Paper on tyre recycling in 2017 but it was nev- er followed through. One Malaysian commentator told us that the Malay- sian government was good at talk- ing but not so great at implementing rules.
Vietnam
This Southeast Asian country has no legislation on tyre recycling ex- cept, we believe, a ban on the im- port of waste tyres. In 2016, Tyre and Rubber Recycling wrote about the situation where Vietnam had more tyres in containers at its ports than it had the capacity to deal with. That resulted in a ban on waste tyre imports, apart from temporary imports in transit to a third-party destination. We also wrote about the manual nature of tyre recycling in the country and primarily, this re- mains an artisan sector in Vietnam.
Thailand
Thailand has been putting an EPR scheme for Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in place, as have most Southeast Asian nations. So, the concept is there; it just needs expanding to the tyre sector. However, as in other rubber producing countries, there would be a reluctance to promote a sector that could potentially un- dermine the Natural Rubber (NR) market.
If the NR production for Thailand is around 3-4 million tonnes (this is a variable) and in 2022, the coun- try exported just above 2 million - cant source of income for Thailand. Suppose the government were to adopt a fully managed tyre recycling industry. In that case, the recycled
43 the tyreman 2022/2
