UK tire recyclers seek ‘fairer’ fire safety rules

London – The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) is holding talks with the UK’s Environment Agency (EA) over a plan to develop a waste-stream-specific approach to preventing fires at tire recycling sites.

The TRA wants the government to develop an approach that recognises current operational constraints in the business of tire recycling as an alternatives to proposals tabled by the EA last year.

Site-specific fire prevention plans would enable TRA operators to work within a framework more suited to their specific circumstances, argued a TRA statement issued 24 May.

The association explained, for example, that stack heights and separation distances proposed for tires are much lower than for other more easily combustible wastes such as plastics, wood, textiles and paper.

TRA member companies, it added, are regularly audited under its ‘responsible recycler scheme’ but, under the EA’s existing proposals, would lose business to illegal operators who routinely escape enforcement.

“It is essential we protect Britain’s waste stream recovery infrastructure. We hope this renewed dialogue with the Environment Agency will achieve this,” said Peter Taylor OBE, the TRA’s secretary general.