The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) is urging environment secretary Owen Patterson to tackle the high levels of malpractice associated with waste and recycling sites that are exempt from regulation by the Environment Agency.
The TRA, an organisation for members of the tyre recycling industry, highlighted the issue in a letter sent to the minister two weeks ago, but secretary general of the association, Peter Taylor, said he had yet to receive a response.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Mr Taylor, said there was a strong correlation between successful Environment Agency prosecutions for waste crime and exempt sites, and called for more robust means to tackle the issue.
A number of operations for the use, treatment, disposal and storage of waste can register with the Agency for an exemption from an environmental permit. Often these sites are smaller operations that store or process low quantities of waste.
Environment Agency guidance explains that waste operations that comply with the limits and conditions of an exemption have a low risk of harming human health or the environment.
However, speaking to letsrecycle.com, Mr Taylor said: We are all concerned about unregulated activities that go on in the waste industry, as there is a very strong correlation between exempt sites and Environment Agency prosecutions for waste crimes.
He added: I think there is a need for the government to review the current status for site exemption and the minimum level of waste that operators are able to hold. We do need to take a whole long hard look at the exemptions regime as it is not working as well as the government has said in the past.
‘I think there is a need for the government to review the current status for site exemption and the minimum level of waste that operators are able to hold.’
Peter Taylor, secretary general, TRA
Last year, the TRA also wrote to the then Defra minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach calling for a temporary moratorium on the quantity of further exemptions to be considered until a full assessment of those already in existence had been carried out.
The response from Lord Taylor stated that exemptions are providing for small-scale, low risk operations in order to encourage bona fide recycling of recovery.
However, the TRA maintains that changes need to be made to site exemptions, as it says that further prosecutions involving exempt sites have since been mounted by the Environment Agency in England and Wales.
Responsible Recycler Scheme
Last month, the TRA welcomed the Agencys raids of illegal sites and urged tyre recyclers to ensure they meet their legal obligations by signing up to the Tyre Industry Federations Responsible Recycler Scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).
The voluntary scheme was set up to ensure that all used tyres collected from any designated premises are re-used or recycled in ways that comply with UK and European statutory regulations. Members of the scheme are subject to regular spot audit checks and the Scheme Charter, while used tyres processed by members are tracked and accounted for.
However, as the scheme is voluntary and some operators can apply for site exemptions, Mr Taylor said: It means that people are accumulating tyres without any regulatory controls.
He added: As an association we are not comfortable with that. We think there is an argument at the very least for a discussion to be had about the downside of unregulated sites. In our case there is a level of oversight that should not exist, and in some cases operators are running more than one small site.
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