On behalf of the German Ministry for Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is currently supporting the Kenyan government to implement a sustainable and environmentally-sound waste tyre management system in the east African country. For this purpose a Strategic Alliance has been established between GIZ and companies from the cement industry, from the tyre sector (tyre traders, tyre producers) and from the road transport sector. By Gernod Dilewski, Infrastruktur & Umwelt Professor Böhm und Partner, Germany.

Waste tyres are one of the important alternative fuel sources available to the cement industry. While there are many options available for recycling tyres, co-processing in cement kilns is one of the most economic and frequently-used. In Europe more than 1.26Mt of waste tyres (44 per cent of their recovery volume) were utilised in cement kilns in 2011.1