Environmental Regulators Aim to Connect with Market at Brityrex

The Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Northern Ireland Environment Agency are working together on new legislation affecting the tyre industry. They have chosen Brityrex as a major platform for an important tyre trade campaign to raise awareness about the new legislation covering the chemical make-up of tyres and retread rubber.

With effect from the beginning of January this year new European REACH legislation states that extender oils shall not be placed on the market, or used for the production of tyres or parts of tyres if they contain more than the threshold limits of PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon). The restrictions also apply to the marketing of tyres and treads for retreading.

Some PAHs can be extremely toxic when released into the environment, for example by being deposited on road surfaces during use. Both European manufacturers, importers and retailers need to comply with the new ruling; anyone found to be selling tyres containing PAHs above the restricted levels could be faced with enforcement proceedings.

One of the problems for retailers and wholesalers will be that there is no visual test to determine the presence of PAH, which means they will need to be absolutely confident that their tyre suppliers are aware of and meeting the tighter standard.

Other important issues include s-marking, the future labelling legislation and of course safe recovery and disposal of tyres. Recently the Environment Agency’s (EA) new waste tyre tsar, if you can call him that, told journalists of the agency’s increased emphasis on these related issues: “In particular we are working…to raise awareness on how best to deal with waste tyres legally and responsibly. However, key to tackling this crime is the gathering of information and intelligence on illegal operators and activity. We are asking for support from businesses to report any information to us that could indicate illegal tyre activity,” Phil Gibbons of the Environment Agency commented.

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