Progress in used tyres management in the European Union: A review

The dynamic increase in the manufacture of rubber products, particularly those used in the automobile industry, is responsible for a vast amount of wastes, mostly in the form of used tyres, of which more than 17 million tonnes are produced globally each year. The widely differing chemical compositions and the cross-linked structures of rubber in tyres are the prime reason why they are highly resistant to biodegradation, photochemical decomposition, chemical reagents and high temperatures. The increasing numbers of used tyres therefore constitute a serious threat to the natural environment. The progress made in recent years in the management of polymer wastes has meant that used tyres are starting to be perceived as a potential source of valuable raw materials. The development of studies into their more efficient recovery and recycling, and the European Union's restrictive legal regulations regarding the management of used tyres, have led to solutions enabling this substantial stream of rubber wastes to be converted into energy or new polymer materials. In this article we present the relevant literature describing innovative organizational approaches in the management of used tyres in the European Union member countries and the possible uses of waste tyres as a source of raw materials or alternative fossil fuels.     

Climate adaptation management and institutional erosion: insights from a major Canadian port

This paper performs an institutional analysis of the adaptation to climate change by ports, through a case study of the port of Vancouver, Canada. While previous literature has demonstrated the value of informal institutions for filling gaps left by formal institutions, the role of failed informal institutions has received less attention. Our analysis reveals how, in the case of an unprecedented challenge like climate adaptation, relying on informal institutions with less agency can actually erode the strength of existing institutions in a form of negative institutional plasticity. In this case, emerging polycentric governance was unsuccessful, unable to construct clearly demarcated responsibilities due to impedance by the path dependence of the current federalist system. The latter works well for traditional infrastructure investments with a closed pool of stakeholders, but not for ports where multiple scales of embeddedness, both horizontally and vertically, produce a collective action problem with no mechanism for resolution.