The new contract comes into operation today, the day before a ban on whole tyres going to landfill comes into force in the UK under the European Landfill Directive.
From July 2003, the Directive bans the disposal of whole tyres to landfill, and from July 2006 the disposal of shredded tyres via landfill will also be banned.
Sims Recycling Solutions, part of the Sims Group, has signed the contract on a basis of around 11,000 tyres per year. Tyres will be taken by householders to the council's civic amenity sites, run by Wyvern Waste. Sims will turn the tyres into fuel for cement kilns.
West Sussex councillor Lionel Barnard explained: “As well as the contract, there will be new signs at our civic amenity sites to make separating tyres easier and, together with our contractors, Wyvern Waste, we are ensuring that staff are able to help with all aspects of the regulations. The public can still take tyres to our sites, but it is important they put them in the right place, or ask for advice and help.”
Responsibility
The Environment Agency has clarified comments made previously to letsrecycle.com (see letsrecycle.com story)
concerning the responsibility of local authorities in regard to the collection of tyres from householders.
Agency producer responsibility policy manager Jeff Cooper said that the issue of tyres is tied into waste definition rules also applying to the vehicle from which the tyres are obtained.
Mr Cooper said: “A car within the cartilage of the house is domestic waste, the term we use to distinguish this waste from waste from domestic sources. Then if the tyres are generated from within a household they are domestic waste.”
In normal circumstances, a household would not generate many tyres, Mr Cooper explained. If a local authority accepted these at a CA site then “it will have to recognise that if they take in the tyres they will have to keep them separated,” he added.
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