Tyre stewardship scheme accelerates into action

The federal government last week launched a product stewardship scheme to tackle the environmental challenges arising from used tyres which have not been disposed of correctly. This follows the formation of a separate campaign, The Skids, by the Boomerang Alliance and Australian Tyre Recycling Association (ATRA) in September 2013.

Every year in Australia, around 48 million tyres reach their end of life. Approximately 66% of these are disposed to landfill, stockpiled, illegally dumped or categorised as unknown; 18% are exported; and only 16% are domestically recycled. According to The Skids National Policy Director Dave West, these low recycling rates may be due to the presence of unlicensed rogue operators in the tyre disposal sector.

As well as littering the landscape and taking up precious landfill space, improperly disposed tyres can also increase the risk of fires releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere. According to West, “Australia has experienced a horrendous increase in the number of tyre-related fires (323 fires from 2008-13 in NSW alone)”.

But tyres are also a valuable commodity with great potential to be utilised at end of life in a range of applications. Recycled tyres can be used to make new rubber products, in roads and pavements, and in sporting fields and playgrounds. Old tyres can also be used as an alternative fuel source for producers of energy and cement.

The government product stewardship scheme thus aims to increase domestic tyre recycling, support new technologies, expand the market for tyre-derived products and reduce the number of end-of-life tyres ending up in landfill or illegal dumps. It will be administered by Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA), a company established by the tyre industry, which will also conduct education, communication, compliance and market development activities.

Any stakeholder in the tyre supply chain, including tyre and vehicle importers, retailers, fleet operators, local governments, collectors, recyclers and the mining industry, may apply to become a participant in the voluntary tyre stewardship scheme. These participants will commit to only working with others who support environmentally sound end-of-life management of tyres. The commitments will be supported by an audit program.

Participating tyre importers will pay a levy to fund the operation of the scheme, including for market development and research. The levy will not directly fund the collection and recycling of end-of-life tyres; these costs are likely to be passed on to consumers at around the same level as disposal charges that are paid by many tyre consumers now.

West has said the TSA is “welcomed as a contribution to the state government and community efforts; but the pressing first step is to ensure the program’s integrity by ensuring that every tyre company associated with the initiative … will immediately commit to ensuring their waste tyres are collected and managed by a legally compliant operator”.

The TSA has stated that it will monitor compliance through random and risk-based audits; failure to comply may lead to revocation of a participant’s accreditation. Yet when The Skids initiated an investigation into the practices of major tyre importers following the launch of their campaign, West found “a number of major tyre networks have failed to act”.

Boomerang Alliance National Convenor Jeff Angel has further stated that because the scheme is “a voluntary opt-in, opt-out system”, action still needs to be taken on companies that deliberately choose not to participate; those that use “rogue collectors who flout fire safety and state and local government laws to undercut the legitimate recyclers”.

The scheme has been authorised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) until May 2018, with ACCC Deputy Chair Dr Michael Schaper stating, “The ACCC is satisfied that the scheme is likely to result in a benefit to the public by reducing the volume of used tyres entering the domestic waste stream or being exported overseas and burned for fuel in an environmentally unsustainable way.”

However, the ACCC acknowledges that the success of the scheme will ultimately depend on its effective administration. Therefore, it has imposed conditions of authorisation in order to ensure robust and transparent annual reporting by the board of TSA. An independent review of the scheme will also occur.