Italy took a long time arriving at one of the most competitive tyre stewardship schemes in Europe. In its original format it allowed any group to establish a consortium to collect and manage the recovery of end of life tyres.
Change to Italian Law May Impact Upon Smaller EPR Agencies
The result was that Ecopneus, the main consortium backed by the big players, was able to create a network of collection centres that covered the whole of Italy. Others such as Ecotyre, Green Tire and GES covered as much of the country as they found economically viable. This left some parts of Italy served by four or five collection services, and some perhaps by only one, or maybe by, shall we say, “family organisations”.
In an attempt to level the playing field and offer competitive markets to all of the country, and perhaps encroach upon the influence of “family businesses”, the Italian government is proposing changes to the law that will require all the stewardship consortiums to respond to collection requests from anywhere in Italy. This is not an issue for Ecopneus, but for the smaller agencies such as GES or Green Tire, it may make them uncompetitive. Of course, those who obey the law will feel the weight of these new conditions more than others.
