Recycling scheme to oversee tyre disposal in Republic

A new recycling scheme will from next year to oversee the disposal of all waste tyres in the Republic.

Repak End of Life Tyres will also contribute to the costs of disposing of an estimated 10 to 15 million tyres stockpiled in illegal dumps, warehouses and on farms across the State.

The initiative will not involve a new charge or tax on motorists, who already pay a levy on new tyres to fund safe disposal.

The scheme will operate as Repak ELT, a separate entity to Repak’s current recycling business. It replaces earlier attempts to track tyre imports and impose recycling – the latest was found to have a non-compliance rate of 46 per cent.

A review found there was a lack of consistent data on what happened used tyres collected from the motor industry, with between 25 and 50 per cent going missing.

Enforcement authorities

A number of local authorities have been nominated as waste- enforcement regional local authorities – Werlas – to police the new system. These include

Cork City Council

for the south and southwest region, Dublin City for the midlands and east, and

Leitrim

and

Donegal

, which will jointly police the west and northwest.

From next year industry importers will pay Repak ELT €2.80 for every car tyre imported into Ireland.