TRA welcomes government’s firm commitment to end T8 Exemptions in England and Wales – but fears for likely timeline grow

The announcement by DEFRA that the current exemptions regime for the handling of mechanically-recovered end-of-life tyres (known as T8 Exemptions) will be withdrawn is welcomed by the Tyre Recovery Association which has strongly advocated the move.

The TRA’s fully permitted members, who are also audited under the association’s own unique Responsible Recycler Scheme, have long been commercially disadvantaged by non-compliant and even illegal activity by rogue operators claiming T8 status.  Not only is this unfair competition but it puts a huge enforcement burden on our regulators and causes reputational damage to our essential industry, says TRA Secretary-General Peter Taylor, he went on, “the ending of exemptions in England and Wales has been a very long time coming; commendably, SEPA ended this practice in Scotland fully seven years ago!”

Taylor continued, “Rogue activity in our sector is not just market-disruptive, although that in itself is bad enough, but our recent history is littered with examples of T8-registered businesses who flout our planning laws, exceed site storage limits and are all too prone to fly-tipping and site abandonment.  These activities routinely damage our environment, place a high burden on the limited resources of those charged with enforcement and prey on the public purse.”

However, this announcement by DEFRA will not bring an immediate end to this misery as the necessary legislation to bring this change into law still requires that seemingly scarce resource, parliamentary time.  The TRA, together with others in the automotive recycling sector, will be lobbying hard during the coming months to ensure there is no further slippage in getting this long-sought legislation into law.