As part of its commitment to the circular economy and environmental care, Codelco El Teniente, Arrigoni Ambiental and the regional Ministry of the Environment of the O'Higgins region recycled more than 100 tons of end-of-life tires (ELT) this year. The collection was carried out in two campaigns, with the second one ending this week, with the arrival of the last trucks with ELT at the recycling plant in San Francisco de Mostazal.

"We have been working collaboratively with the Arrigoni company, who we are extremely grateful for having expressed their interest in continuing with this recycling campaign, and we are also grateful to Codelco, which has facilitated its operations in the sense of placing dump trucks in these territories so that we can bring and carry out the logistics to take the tires to the recycling company," said Giovanna Amaya, regional secretary of the Environment for the O'Higgins region.

For his part, Germán Sandoval, Manager of Sustainability and External Affairs at Codelco El Teniente, emphasized the support that this initiative represents for the environment, communities and the local economy. "Through this activity we are collaborating so that these tires can leave the communities where they often accumulate and generate a series of negative effects. Therefore, we comply with the economic value, which is what usually moves us as a company, but also, and with great pride, we can say that we are complying with environmental and social matters," he said.

The unused tires were removed from the communes of Coltauco, Requínoa and Graneros, to then arrive at the Arrigoni Plant and be converted into byproducts such as Carbon Black, AANFU Oil, steel and pyrolytic gas. "The tires that arrive at our plant are processed through pyrolysis, which is basically thermal exposure in the absence of oxygen, different from combustion and which causes the tire to decompose into its most natural states and allows us to obtain four products," explained Mauricio Bravo, general manager of Arrigoni Ambiental NFU.

Positive impact on communities

The mayors of the communes that participated in this initiative during the year positively valued the collaboration that existed between the different institutions for the benefit of the residents. "It helped us to be able to solve a critical problem that we have in the Cachapoal River and, obviously, we are going to continue working in that aspect," said Felix Sánchez, mayor of Coltauco.

From Graneros, Mayor Marcelo Miñañir explained that the removal of used tires helped to clear the garbage dumps in the area. "We are very concerned about the places where people throw garbage and tires. So for us it ends up being an important help. I think that this initiative contributes to the well-being of our neighbors," concluded the mayor.