What will Ireland do with 63,000 tonnes of used tyres every year?
Analysis: A new research project is looking at how to create a viable, valuable, eco-friendly solution in Ireland for used tyres
A new article for RTE Brainstorm by Róisín Rafferty explores the alternatives and introduces the ENTYRE project.
In 2022, Ireland collected nearly 63,000 tonnes of waste tyres. However, there is still no sustainable strategy for managing waste tyres in Ireland. Historically, we’d have simply sent them to a landfill, but this practice was banned by the EU since 2003 due to severe fire hazards, pest infestations and toxic chemical leaching.
More recently, tyres have been ground into “crumb rubber” and used in astroturf pitches and equestrian arenas. However, crumb rubber is a microplastic and causes substantial harm when released from these surfaces and fed into our waterways, leading to an EU ban under REACH restrictions in September 2023.
Read the full article here.
