Ireland to take tough action on tyre waste

Voluntary agreements on sustainable management of old tyres aren't working, Ireland's Environment Minister has said, and the government will need to look at regulation that will force the industry to take responsibility for its waste.


John Gormley, Irish Environment Minister, is reported to have convened talks with the country’s major trade associations representing the tyre industry and those bodies tasked with dealing with tyre waste following the TV broadcast of an investigation into how the sector is dealing with its waste.

Mr Gormley is believed to be planning to pull the plug on the voluntary agreement that currently exists within the industry and replace it with producer responsibility scheme that would put the financial costs of recovering and processing tyre waste onto the companies that profit from their sale.

Interviewed for the programme, Mr Gormely said: “It hasn’t worked and the agreements that were entered into in good faith will have to be re-assessed. There hasn’t been, in my view, a willingness to live up to the agreement, and it will have to be re-assessed in its totality.”

Sam Bond

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