Key facts about tyres
- The UK produces 450,000 tonnes of used-tyres each year that have to be reused or disposed of somehow. That's enough tyres to stretch in line from London to Sydney!
- Around 160,000 tonnes are sent to landfill each year.
- Millions of tyres remain in stockpiles around the country and some of these dumps harm the environment.
- Tyres don't decompose and can be a fire risk affecting the air with toxic fumes, and watercourses, which fire quench waters can run into.
- Some landfill tyre-fires have been burning for years.
Banning tyres from landfill sites
The EU Landfill Directive introduced a ban on whole tyres being landfilled in July 2003. The ban on shredded tyres came into force in 2006.
The rise of vehicle ownership
This is expected to grow between 30 and 60 per cent over the next 20 years.
Illegal tyre-dumping and stockpiling may be a growing and significant environmental threat.
