Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has issued Order1522/2021 that establishes end-of-waste criteria for recycled rubber from ELT, which opens up new market opportunities for these materials.
EoW for Spanish Tyre Rubber
SIGNUS welcomes its approval as it provides legal certainty and ensures that trade across borders can take place on an equal footing, and with opportunities equivalent to any other product, while eliminating administrative procedures or associated procedures to the transport and export of waste.
Recycled rubber from ELT meets the specific requirements for that change of legal status, from waste to product. These requirements are: that the resulting substance or object is used for specific purposes; that there is a market or demand for that substance or object; that it meets the technical requirements for the specific purposes, as well as with existing legislation and standards applicable to the products; and, finally, that its use does not generate adverse impacts on the environment or health. The end-of-waste condition is adopted at the moment when the recycled rubber obtained leaves the installation of the operator who has separated it from the original tyre.
In the case of materials obtained from the management and correct treatment of tyres at the end of their useful life, the end-of-waste criteria established for the use of the recycled rubber obtained, either in the form of a granule or in the form of powder, is focused on in the following uses: artificial turf fields and bases for other sports fields, pavements for playgrounds, sports courts and safety pavements, moulded parts and rubber articles, and bituminous mixtures.
The end of waste status for rubber obtained from the treatment of this waste has already been regulated in other European countries, namely Italy, Latvia, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. This decree opens up new opportunities and new markets for these materials in line with the principles of the Circular Economy.
