EA initiative rubber stamps tyre recycling

摘要

More than 100,000 used tyres are removed from UK vehicles every day. And so a new initiative from Wrap and the Environment Agency proves very welcome as businesses try to get to grips with the value of used tyres. The Quality Protocol for the Production and Use of Tyre-Derived Rubber Materials, a consultation for which ends on March 31, could make it easier and cheaper for industry to reprocess tyres into valuable products like flooring, road surfacing and aggregates. Under the Protocol, processed used tyres would no longer be classified as waste, making the recycled rubber more marketable and guaranteeing to customers that the material they buy will meet agreed quality standards. The agency's head of external waste programmes, Martin Brocklehurst, said: "Placed end to end, the annual tyre waste of England and Wales would stretch from London to Cardiff more than 100 times. With so many cars, vans and trucks discarding tyres, we have potential to access more than 40,000 tonnes of recycled rubber.