Tyre Recovery Association’s vibrant forum demonstrates necessary focus on UK sector

When DME Tyres’ Bill Clarke, the Tyre Recovery Association’s president, addressed the impressively large number of delegates from across the tyre sector at the 2024 Briefing Day (Tuesday 24 September, Leamington Spa), he was in no mood to mince his words. “I don’t think the UK recycling industry can survive in its current form…with one hand tied behind its back,” he said, summing up many years of frustration for the TRA and its members. With a new government slowly – too slowly, perhaps – setting out its legislative agenda, his dramatic rhetorical tone was understandable. With several issues coming to a head, led by an end-of-life tyre (ELT) export situation that is, in every sense, unsustainable, and evolving UK legislation governing waste carriers, brokers and dealers (CBD), the association and its forum speakers demonstrated an increased urgency about the tyre recovery situation.