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9. Waste tyres➤➤ Approximately 24,165 tonnes of waste tyres were managed in Ireland during 2012.

9.1 IntroductionThe Waste Management (Tyres and Waste Tyres) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 664 of 2007) came into force on 1 January 2008. Prior to the introduction of the regulations, information on the generation and management of waste tyres within the State was scarce. One of the aims of the regulations was to put in place a system to track waste tyre flows and improve the quality of the data captured, to provide a greatly improved understanding of waste tyre flows within the State.

Appropriate management of waste tyres is necessary if pollution and health and safety risks are to be avoided. Illegal dumping of waste tyres can cause significant environmental pollution. Stockpiles of tyres can cause environmental pollution due to the potential for uncontrolled fires to occur.

The Waste Management (Tyres and Waste Tyres) Regulations 2007 require that operators in the tyre industry, who are engaged in the recovery or collection of waste tyres for the purposes of recovery and reuse, submit information regarding the waste tyres they handle in a calendar year to either their local authority or a compliance scheme. In 2012 there were two waste tyre compliance schemes in Ireland, the Tyre Recovery Activity Compliance Scheme Ltd (TRACS, www.tracsireland.ie/) and the Tyre Waste Management Scheme (TWM, www.twm.ie/). Membership of waste tyre compliance schemes enables tyre industry operators to fulfil their reporting obligations and it facilitates the monitoring of waste tyre flows within the industry. The information required includes:

➤➤ location(s) of premises involved in the handling of waste tyres;

➤➤ quantities of weight and units of waste tyres accepted and sent offsite during the calendar year;

➤➤ activities carried out on waste tyres accepted onsite;

➤➤ off-site transfer and treatment of the waste tyres (export, chipping, ballast, baled, re-treaded).

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9.2 Waste tyre management in 2012Information on waste tyre management in the Republic of Ireland during 2012 was compiled using data contained in National Waste Report survey returns as well as additional information provided by organisations involved in the handling of waste tyres.

Approximately 24,164 tonnes of waste tyres were reported to have been managed in the State during 2012. Figure 19 illustrates waste tyre flows in 2012, and shows that waste tyres can go through more than one ‘treatment’ activity within the State. For the majority of waste tyres arising, the main treatment activity in the State in 2012 was to crumb for recycling (41%). Twenty percent of tyres were baled for use in engineering, as ballast or for export, and 11% were shredded for recycling or export. The remaining waste tyres managed were directly exported (19%), used for engineering purposes or ballast (4%), prepared for reuse (2%) or used as a fuel (2%).78 Total combined exports of waste tyres amounted to 9,757 tonnes (40% of total managed in 2012), with the majority used as fuel (33%) and the remainder recycled (7%) or sent for reuse (0.2%).79

78 Deviation from 100% is due to movement of waste tyres into storage by waste handlers during 2012.79 Figures provided are percentages of total waste tyres managed.

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Figure 19: Waste tyre flows for 201280

80 Figure 19 does not account for movement of waste tyres into and out of storage by waste handlers during 2012.