The Australian Tyre Recyclers Association (ATRA) is concerned to ensure that data published by Tyre Stewardship Australia is understood
According to Robert Kelman, Executive Officer ATRA; “All recycling sectors have issues that need to be resolved, and ATRA is supportive of resolving those issues within the used tyre recovery sector that require resolution, including; – capturing free riders, – banning landfill disposal, better capturing waste tracking data, enforcing the federal export ban on whole baled tyres, improved governance of the existing TSA and; reducing the ongoing legal disposal in-pit of mining (OTR) tyres .
“It’s truly shocking we only recover 13 per cent of the massive OTR market and bury the rest.
“However, TSA’s revised data actually shows there has been no change in the collection rate of used passenger, truck and bus tyres, though it appears there was during the period, an unacceptable increase in the landfilling of some used tyres.”
He said the ATRA would support state bans on the landfilling of all used tyres; these tyres should go to a beneficial use. However, to lump this (unfortunately) legal disposal into the data as TSA has and suggest all these tyres are being ‘disbursed’ into the environment does not help in advancing the broader policy debate and resolving the issues that need to be resolved.
“Australia has a highly functional and well capitalised free market for used tyre collection and recycling; at 98 per cent collection there is no apparent ‘market failure’ that would warrant the Federal government intervening in the collection market,” said Kelman “Let’s fix the things that need fixing. But the proposal from TSA to intervene in the market, creating a full command and control EPR scheme, setting the prices and the geographies recyclers can operate in, as they do in British Columbia and Italy, would appear to be an overreach.”
