According to the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA), the Republic of Ireland’s proposed tyre compliance scheme, which is due to come into effect on 1 October, will “seriously distort end of life tyre recovery and recycling efforts on the island of Ireland with knock-on-effects in the UK as a whole”.
The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) and Wood Recyclers Association (WRA) are describing the Environment Agency’s (EA) attempt to create a single set of ‘one size fits all’ fire prevention guidelines for all sectors as ‘unviable’, a view that the association states is held by firms across the waste recovery industry. The need to store a diverse range of materials in various grades, each with differing combustibility, burn rates and fire risk, across widely differing sites, makes the adoption of a ‘catch-all’ solution impossible, they point out. Should such a policy be adopted, it would also pose a severe threat to reputable businesses, while at the same time encouraging an increase in sites exempt from regulations and which the EA admits it does not have the funds to inspect.
Plans by the Environment Agency (EA) to introduce new norms for the storage and processing of end of life tyres (ELTs) will force many operators out of business by the end of this year, according to the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA). And what’s more this outcome is likely to drive tyre recycling underground too.
NTDA national chairman Roger Griggs used his speech at the 86th NTDA Annual Dinner to echo many of the sentiments expressed at the Tyre Industry Conference, calling especially for unified voices in tackling industry-wide issues. Encompassing cheap imported products, the under-regulated part-worn tyre market, MOTs and road safety, and the importance of attracting young talent to the industry, Griggs’ speech outlined the evolution of the NTDA’s position over the past year and, most crucially the work it is doing in attempting to bring together a variety of disparate voices. Reinforcing the association’s “growth and renewed energy,” according to Griggs, the dinner was the “biggest… in recent decades, with 620 guests in attendance,” indicating the “value…we all place on spending time together as an industry.
After a decade-long hiatus, the National Tyre Distributor Association (NTDA) resurrected the concept of having an annual tyre industry conference, with a new location and new format at the start of October. The new conference sees the association position its gathering as an industry-wide professional event alongside the NTDA dinner. The decision to re-launch the conference comes at a time when the NTDA dinner has itself evolved significantly – this year some 600 people attended (see complete coverage in the preceding section of this issue). But the most noticeable thing was the concerted effort, especially on the part of various industry associations participating, to present a united front. By doing this they showed that the associations are now more interested in highlighting where they stand together as opposed to where they differ.
At the UK Tyre Recovery Association’s Recycling Day 2015, Bandvulc director Richard O’Connell presented an update on the ongoing pan-European ReTyre (tyre labelling for retreads) project. As T&A mentioned briefly within the first article of this supplement, supplying information on running costs (including fuel efficiency and safety characteristics) could play an important role in retreads’ competitiveness against cheap imported new tyres. The ability to provide a tyre label for retreads, facilitated by an algorithmic tool to take variables into account, could help to achieve a new way to do this, yet there are significant challenges to overcome – a fact referenced by O’Connell when he joked that a talk on the Higgs boson would be “simpler”.
The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) is urging the Environment Agency (EA) to listen to the recycling industry to avoid the inadvertent promotion of unregulated businesses. While the TRA and other waste streams have repeatedly been calling for amendments to the EA’s proposed new Fire Prevention Plan over the past four years, especially to proposed stack heights and the fire breaks between them, the recommendations have, as yet, gone unheeded. The TRA believes that if due action is not taken, unregulated businesses will profit while those with a proven, professional and regulated background will rapidly be forced out of the industry.
Among the TRA’s key achievements in the past ten years, the organisation has helped to develop a standard for tyre-derived materials (PAS 107), in conjunction with the Environment Agency, BSI and WRAP. It has since added a new Quality Protocol (QP) option to PAS 107, designed to promote sustainable, cost-effective tyre recycling and stimulate further demand for tyre-derived materials.
The Tyre Recovery Association’s (TRA) Recycling Day, a one-day conference and dinner organised in partnership with the Retread Manufacturers Association, was held at the Ardencote Manor, Warwickshire on Friday, 19 June. Attended by representatives of the tyre and waste recycling industries, the conference included presentations covering the key themes of regulations and enforcement, best practise and innovation, and common causes and issues facing the industry. The unity of the various trade bodies struck a particularly strong note throughout the day, not just through the joint organisation of the event between the Retread Manufacturers Association (RMA) and the TRA, but with strong backing given to the event by association directors representing the whole of the UK tyre industry. The Recycling Day also marked an occasion for celebration, as the TRA celebrated its tenth anniversary.
The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) is highlighting the new Quality Protocol option (QP) accompanying the existing Publically Available Specification (PAS) 107:12, which covers the Manufacture and Storage of Size-Reduced Tyre-Derived Materials.
The latest so-called “WISH” Proposals for the storage of waste tyres would decimate the important UK retreading industry if adopted in their current form. That’s the view of Patrick O’Connell, president of the Britain’s Retread Manufactures Association (RMA) and MD of Bandvulc Tyres one of Europe’s largest independent tyre retreading businesses, who stated: “This ‘WISH’ document has been developed without any consultation whatsoever with Britain’s retreaders.”
Proposals by the ESA-led ‘WISH’ group have been branded counter-intuitive and arrogant by Britain’s Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) whose members handle more than three quarters of the country’s end-of-life tyre arisings. Commenting further on the proposals, TRA secretary general Peter Taylor OBE called the impression given by WISH that its consultation document was the result of wide ranging consultation to be wholly disingenuous.
The recent history of how we deal with end of life tyres has been littered with ideas, but surprisingly few real success stories. In this opinion piece, Tyre Recovery Association director, Peter Taylor OBE shares his view on the use of tyres in rubberised tarmac.
The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) held its annual seminar at the Ardencote Manor hotel, Claverdon, Warwickshire on 16 May. It featured sessions on the state of the market and the forthcoming WISH code of practice review by Peter Taylor, further talks on the Responsible Recycler Scheme audit process plus PAS107QP from Gary Nelson of Abricon Ltd, plus an update from Environment Agency National Waste Enforcement Campaigns manager Paul Keay, a best practice case study from Apollo Vredestein (UK) Ltd managing director Stuart Jackson and introductory and closing remarks from association president Mike Wilson of Michelin Tyre Plc.
Registered exemptions for the storage of old tyres have reached record levels in England and Wales. The concern is that as the number of exempt sites increases, the authorities’ capacity to deal with and properly police them is stretched. According to the Tyre Recovery Association, since 2012 the association has been warning Ministers of the potential danger posed by weak supervision of exempt sites. TRA representatives explained that exemptions are easy and cheap to register but may pose “a looming threat to the environment where they are unpoliced”.
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