If your company deals in any way with used tyres, then read on. Since the introduction of the 2008 Waste Management Regulations, any businesses of any size, with any involvement in the tyre supply chain, is prohibited from discarding waste tyres in any way other than transferring them to an authorised waste collector.  

 
Waste tyres continue to remain the responsibility of their owners, even after they have been collected.  While tyre waste is being held and treated by the collector, ‘out of sight’ does not mean ‘out of mind’ for the retailer.
 
To make sure that your tyre waste is properly handled, all retailers and holders of waste tyres are advised to ask their collector to produce proof of proper waste management such as a Recovery Certificate.  Companies should be able to produce this when demanded by the relevant authority, to guard against having enforcement proceedings issued by their local County Council.
 
Companies should also sign up to a compliance scheme such as TRACS, Ireland’s first Tyre Recovery Activity Compliance Scheme, set up in 2008 to monitor the movement of tyres in Ireland.  TRACS members allow their waste tyres to be monitored and only allow the collection of waste tyres by licensed collectors.
 
TRACS members also benefit by being exempt from legal obligations to provide regular and numerous detailed reports to their local authority and the EPA. TRACS compiles and reports this information and retailers can rest assured that they are meeting their obligations under the Regulations while reducing the problem of waste tyres.  

TRACS is completely confidential and has adopted the best security and data management systems available, as well as a database to trace all tyres right through the system from import to processing or recycling.
 
According to Fiacra Quinn, Director of TRACS, “Now is the time for remaining operators to sign up to a compliance scheme and take responsibility for tyre waste seriously. The alternative is the imposition of a new scheme by the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which will require additional information to be submitted, as well as a mandatory non-visible deposit charge to be passed down through the supply chain and administered by a scheme that will also control the waste flows”.
 
Signing up to TRACS is simple. Call 01-4100-601, or download an application form at www.tracsireland.ie. More information, including a full list of those registered with TRACS is available on www.tracsireland.ie.