Less waste, more resources
Product stewardship for end-of-life tyres
Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water, Senator Don Farrell, has congratulated the tyre industry on progress made towards a voluntary product stewardship scheme for tyres.
- Progress on Product Stewardship of Tyres - media release, 15 August 2011
An industry-government working group has developed a model for a voluntary product stewardship scheme which aims to increase resource recovery and recycling, and to reduce the negative environmental, health and safety impacts of all end-of-life tyres in Australia.
Environment ministers gave in-principle support to the model scheme at their meeting on 16 September 2011, and encouraged the tyre industry to consult with key stakeholders on the development of the guidelines for the voluntary industry-led scheme.
- Environment and water ministers focus on national priorities - Communique, 16 September 2011
The model scheme will be industry-led and operated, market based, and will acknowledge the inherent value of all end-of-life tyres across Australia.
The model scheme requires further development before it can become operational in 2012. There will be opportunity for further consultation to help develop the final details of the scheme.
Tyres are expected to be one of the first products to be put forward for accreditation under the voluntary component of the Product Stewardship Act 2011.
What is the problem with end-of-life tyres?
In 2009-10, it is estimated that 48 million tyre equivalent passenger unit (EPU) tyres reached their end of life in Australia.
- An EPU is a standardised measure for the quantity of end-of-life tyres.
- One EPU contains as much rubber and other materials as a 'typical' passenger tyre.
- The assumed weight of one new EPU is taken to be 9.5 kilograms and one used EPU is taken to be 8 kilograms.
- Tyres are generally made from rubber, steel and textiles.
A large number of Australia's end-of-life tyres are being disposed through landfill, stockpiles or illegally dumped and only a small proportion are being recycled.
Apart from the costs to the community and governments through littering our landscapes and waterways and taking up scarce landfill space, end-of-life tyres can be a source of health and environmental concerns; fires in stockpiles can release toxic gases and tyre stockpiles provide breeding habitats for mosquitoes and vermin. Dumped and landfilled tyres also represent a loss of potentially valuable resources as end-of-life tyres and tyre derived products can be put to productive use in many ways, which include:
- the manufacture of new rubber products
- road construction as a constituent in asphalt roads
- surface materials such as artificial turf, sporting field and playground surfaces, and conveyor belts
- alternative fuel for industries such as producers of energy and cement, and as a substitute for diesel in explosives, and
- civil engineering such as embankments and lightweight fill.
In November 2009, the Environment Protection and Heritage Council agreed to work with the tyre industry on the establishment of a voluntary industry-led approach to product stewardship for tyres. The development of a product stewardship initiative was to assist in overcoming the impediments to markets for end-of-life tyres and tyre derived products and to gain more value from end-of-life tyres generated in Australia.
The Tyre Implementation Working Group was formed in May 2010 to develop this initiative with representation from the Australian Tyre Industry Council, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Motor Trades Association of Australia, Australian Tyre Recyclers Association, Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce and the Australian, Queensland and New South Wales governments.
Background information is available in our online archive
About the EPHC
The objective of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council is to ensure the protection of the environment and heritage of Australia and New Zealand.
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