AQW 30681/11-15

Mr Steven Agnew
Green Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 06/02/2014
Answered On Date: 21/02/2014
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of the Environment what proportion of tyres are recycled locally.

Answer:

Methods of tyre recycling currently licensed in Northern Ireland are a mixture of shredding, crumbing and retreading.

There are currently 6 licences dealing primarily with waste tyres as a waste stream, three of these have been suspended. Three are currently operating.

WML 04/35 PPP : Shredding

WML10/24Entyre: Baling for onward recovery (Suspended)

WML 12/25R4: Shredding and Crumbing

WML13/70Ken Ferguson: Baling for onward recovery

WML14/37Crane Tyres: Baling for onward recovery (Suspended)

WML25/13 Tyre Recycling: (Suspended)

There are currently 2 exemptions for recycling tyres.

WMEX02/93 AC Tyres: Crumbing Tyres for the manufacture of finished goods from waste rubber into equestrian soft surface for outdoor and indoor riding arenas.

WMEX11/54 EKS Tyres: Retreading of Tyres

All of the sites listed above have been given site specific licence conditions. A copy of the above authorisations has been placed in the Assembly Library.

The most recent available figures on the quantity of waste tyres come from a survey commissioned by the Department in March 2012 in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in the Republic of Ireland. This used the latest available figures (the 2010/11 financial year) in the report dated January 2013 subsequently published on the Department’s web site in March 2013.

The report states that of the 18,597 tonnes of waste tyres generated in Northern Ireland in 2010/11 13,370 tonnes (or 72%) were sent to recycling / reprocessing facilities. Of this tonnage 7,761 were exported outside of Northern Ireland which leaves 5,609 tonnes (or 58%) sent to recycling / reprocessing facilities inside Northern Ireland.

The report provides further break-down in terms of management routes and tonnages for used tyres and can be viewed at the following web address: