Mounting evidence of fly-tipping and abandonment alarms TRA members

This autumn could bring with it a new rash of tyre dumping and site abandonment warns Britain’s Tyre Recovery Association (TRA). The association has warned that there are several factors of which the public, our regulators and the tyre trade should be aware. The TRA’s latest comments follow a previous warning that market conditions were likely to have such consequences earlier in the year.

First, the prices typically charged by recyclers to accept end of life tyres from collectors have almost doubled since the start of the year. This is because market conditions have hardened, and indications suggest they will remain at these new levels. Many smaller collectors have been slow to recognise this reality, the TRA adds. They now find themselves holding large quantities of old tyres they have collected at prices too low to fund current reprocessing costs. This leads to abandonment.

A further factor is that the Environment Agency’s temporary Covid-driven relaxation of storage limits for our old tyres ends on 30 September 2020. Therefore operators who have availed themselves of this concession must revert to their normal or permitted limits.

Finally, the prospect of an early end to the widely abused Exemptions regime in England and Wales will put further pressure on some operators to choose between more responsible levels of regulatory compliance or business closure.

“These are an exceptional set of circumstances,” said Peter Taylor, TRA secretary-general, “which we fear will have reputational consequences for our industry and for regulators. We in the TRA have consistently argued for more effective enforcement but now more than ever we urge Police and regulators to be more than ever alert to the growing dangers of widespread and opportunistic abandonment over the coming months.”

The TRA is therefore reminding tyre retailers, vehicle dismantlers, and all those needing to responsibly dispose of their tyres of the importance of meeting their duty of care in passing on waste. Doing so helps the country to combat rising levels of criminality, which can have negative reputational consequences for the tyre industry.

More information on responsible ELT disposal is available on the TRA website.