End-of-life tyre regulations welcomed

A GOVERNMENT MOVE TOWARDS regulations that will put the responsibility for end-of-life tyres on the industry, has been welcomed by Tyrewise, which has been lobbying for the move.

“This will end illegal stockpiling and dumping, which has over time cost both ratepayers and the environment heavily,” says Adele Rose, chief executive of 3R Group, the project managers for Tyrewise.

She says the move has been long-awaited by the tyre industry, which saw stakeholders establish Tyrewise in 2012 to push for the introduction of an industry-led framework for a regulated stewardship scheme.

“However successive Governments failed to make use of the tools available to regulate endof-life tyres.”

The July announcement by Associate Environment Minister, Eugenie Sage, was part of a wider plan to reduce the amount of rubbish ending up in landfills – by establishing regulated product stewardship schemes for plastic packaging, e-waste, refrigerants, agrichemicals and their containers and farm plastics as well as tyres.

Rose says: “The key impact of regulated product stewardship is ensuring there is a level playing field for all manufacturers and distributors, without the negative impact of free-riders who choose not to participate in a voluntary scheme.”

A proposed Tyrewise regulatory scheme has an advanced disposal fee built into the cost of tyres, which will be used to fund the scheme, says Rose: “It is critical that people understand this is not an additional fee for consumers but replaces the existing disposal fees charged by most tyre retailers without any surety of good environmental management at end of life.”

Sage said that NZ’s 15 voluntary product stewardship schemes have had limited success in minimising waste.

T&D