Government scraps plan to push back full tyre landfill ban

Defra has announced in a response to its consultation on proposed landfill regulations that the European Landfill Directive's July 16, 2006 date banning whole and shredded tyres from landfill will remain.

”We propose bringing the ban on used whole and shredded tyres forward to 16 July 2006. This date is fully supported by the tyre recovery industry. “
– Defra
A new deadline of October 30 2007 emerged in a recent consultation on landfill regulations published shortly before Christmas, which suggested that there should be a single implementation date for all non-hazardous waste under the EU Landfill Directive.

But the date change was met with disapproval by several organisations – including Retreat Manufacturers Association, British Rubber Manufacturers Association, Used Tyre Working Group, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd and British Metals Recycling Association (see letsrecycle.com story).

These organisations claimed that it could be “disastrous” to put back the date, as it “endangered the viability of the recovery infrastructure in place.”

Government
In response to this, the government said: “Whilst there was considerable support for a single implementation date, we propose bringing the ban on used whole and shredded tyres forward to 16 July 2006. This date is fully supported by the tyre recovery industry, which says it has sufficient capacity and infrastructure in place to handle the relatively small proportion of used tyres currently being landfilled.

“The total ban on the landfilling of liquid and the requirement for pre-treatment of all waste will come in on 30 October 2007 and is in accordance with
Ministers’ earlier statement to allow a two year lead in period. Government
and the Environment Agency will work together to provide clarity on pretreatment
requirement for non-hazardous waste,” it added.

The government had already consulted three times on regulatory and technical aspects of implementing the Landfill Directive. The first consultation paper was published in October 2000, the second in August 2001 and the third in September 2003.