Who makes car tyres?
What happens to scrap tyres at the moment? Tyres are a controlled waste under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which places a Duty of Care on waste producers to ensure that waste material is disposed of safely through licensed carriers to licensed sites. Currently 20% of scrap tyres are retreaded, 5% used as boat fenders, silage clamps etc, 10% crumbed for secondary raw materials, 15% incinerated and 50% landfilled, dumped or stockpiled. When disposed of to landfill sites, tyres in large volumes can cause instability by rising to the surface of the site, affecting its long term settlement and therefore posing problems for future use and land reclamation. Rubber materials do contain proportions of organic chemicals and little is known about the long term leaching effects of these materials. The process of shredding produces some rubber crumb which is sold on to other sectors of industry. The Department of the Environment recommends that landfill sites should not take whole tyres a
