The tyre industry’s Responsible Recycler Scheme (RRS) has been further boosted through the support of TyreSafe, the UK’s leading tyre safety organisation. By supporting the scheme, TyreSafe hopes to help cut the number of illegal part-worn tyres entering the market and also encourage safer worker practices within tyre dealers, garages and workshops.

“The Responsible Recycler Scheme is of significant importance to the tyre industry and we are delighted to offer our support,” comments Stuart Jackson, chairman, TyreSafe. “In addition to the detrimental impact to the environment and cost caused by illegal disposal, tyres that are not properly recycled pose a serious safety threat to motorists if they re-enter the market as illegal part-worn tyres.”

Under the industry’s RRS, tyres are collected, handled and reprocessed by licensed operators in line with all UK and EU regulations. Members of the scheme are independently audited and full traceability means that tyres handled by RRS member companies can be tracked throughout the disposal chain. More than 45 million used tyres are processed each year through the scheme, making it the largest voluntary tyre recovery programme in Europe.

TyreSafe recently warned drivers about the dangers of part worn tyres following an investigation by Birmingham Trading Standards. The study found that nine out of ten part worn tyres being sold in the City, failed to meet minimum legal standards.

 

 

 

 

The Environment Agency will redouble its efforts to combat organised waste tyre crime during 2010 with significant investment in the necessary personnel and resources to combat illegal black market tyre disposal. The Environment Agency has appointed a waste tyre specialist to run an intelligence-led operation against the largest illegal operators.

In another move to clean up illegal dumping, the Environment Agency has revealed its newest weapon in the war on waste crime. An innovative technology that can map what’s buried underground is being used by the agency to search for waste buried illegally, and make sure the polluter pays for its clean up.

The new technology will add to the armoury of CSI-style techniques used by the Environment Agency to tackle serious waste criminals. It will be used alongside sophisticated techniques including forensics, handwriting analysis and Smartwater tracking by a dedicated national environmental crime team. The team was set up in 2008 to target organised waste crime, and they are specialists in recovering the proceeds of crime.

Since 2008 the Environment Agency has closed 1,500 illegal waste sites, and fines for committing waste offences have doubled since 2003, from £1.4million to over £3million. But the Agency estimates that there are still approximately 800 illegal sites currently in operation and new technologies are vital tools in shutting them down. Illegal waste sites and organised criminal flytipping operations cost businesses and taxpayers millions of pounds every year to clean up.

The newest state of the art equipment, known as resistive tomography, is similar to the kit used on Channel 4’s Time Team programme and uses electrodes inserted into the ground at regular intervals to emit an electrical current. Some materials are more resistant than others to electrical current, which means a picture can be built up of what lies beneath the surface.
On its first outing for the agency in October, the technology uncovered a large area of buried waste in the New Forest National Park. It is estimated that the site will cost over £500,000 to clean up – a cost which will be passed on to the landowner who dumped the waste.

Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Dr Paul Leinster, said: “This is just one of the many state of the art technologies that the Environment Agency uses to make sure that waste criminals are caught, prosecuted and made to pay for the clean up of the land they have polluted.

“By dumping waste illegally, waste criminals avoid landfill charges and undercut legitimate waste businesses, but more importantly they put the environment and human health at risk. We are making sure that waste crime does not pay, and have set up specialist crime teams to catch criminals and confiscate the assets they’ve gained from crime.”

Matthew Douglas Ritchie of Icklingham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk pleaded guilty to three charges of transferring waste to an unauthorised person, which he claimed was a company known as Rubber Resources.

Bury St Edmunds Magistrates’ Court was told yesterday (Thurs) that Ritchie normally took the waste tyres he collected to Murfitts Industries for disposal but they refused to continue taking his tyres in 2007 when they discovered his waste carriers registration had expired.

Ritchie told Environment Agency officers that when Murfitts refused to take his tyres he turned to a company he claimed was called Rubber Resources whom he said he had heard about and who he said had contacted him. He said he let his customers continue to think he was taking them to Murfitts because he was worried they would go direct to Rubber Resources instead.

He admitted to the officers that representatives of the company had been difficult to get hold of and he had met up with one only twice just outside Clacton by the side of the road to pay the money.

He said he had handed over about 7,500 tyres in total to the company and had assumed they would be dealt with around Colchester. He had paperwork that showed.

After the hearing, Environment Agency officer Gary Yardley said: ‘There were seven trailers abandoned across East Anglia over a number of months. Landowners, local authorities and the Environment Agency have had to bear the cost of having the tyres disposed of legally.’

The magistrates said the fine and costs were limited due to Ritchie’s means.

From The Green Car Website.

Renault’s stand design and construction reflects its continued commitment to issues of a ‘green’ nature. Among the innovative solutions employed to minimise the environmental effects of its display materials at the show, included the use of rubber flooring made from recycled car and truck tyres. Elsewhere on the white and green themed stand, the main display area has been constructed from timber fibreboard, made from recycled softwood dust and wood chips.

Devizes Community Centre gets play area made from recycled tyres

From This is Wiltshire.

Youngsters using the Devizes Community Children’s Centre can now play outside in a new area.

The centre used a grant from the former Kennet District Council to create a sandpit, water feature and a soft surface made from recycled tyres.

The centre in the grounds of Southbroom Infants School by the Green is open Monday to Friday for 50 weeks of the year and is for families of children aged under five.