Life cycle assessment of vehicle tires: A systematic review

Abstract

There has been a growing awareness of the potential environmental impacts from the tire industry in the last two decades. Life cycle assessment (LCA), as an efficient technique, was applied to quantify the environmental impacts of industrial tires through the four stages of life cycle, i.e., production, transportation, use, and end-of-life. In response to the rapid development of LCA applications on tires, this article conducted a comprehensive and critical review on the related literature. The methodology, on-going trends, challenges, and future opportunities in the LCA study of tires are investigated based on a systematic review method. It is found that most studies investigated the end-of-life stage of tires, while ignoring the transportation stage. The use stage is the contributor to most environmental impacts in the entire life cycle of a tire. Notably, the carbon emissions in the use stage range from 550 kg CO2 eq to 840 kg CO2 eq per car tire. There are inconsistencies in several LCA aspects, i.e., functional units, impact assessment methods, impact categories, etc. To improve the environmental performance, the recovery of end-of-life tires (ELT), adoption of secondary materials, and new tire designs are recommended.