The Irish Farmers Journal understands that the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) and Circol ELT recently met to discuss the newly proposed tyre recycling scheme, which is set to affect all tractors and agricultural machinery.

“The IFA has asked Circol ELT to set up a once-off, well-funded countrywide tyre bring centre, to be operated in a similar fashion to the used bale plastic bring centres we have become accustomed to.

“The IFA feels this once-off scheme is necessary to gather up worn-out and used tyres from farmyards throughout the country.

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"However, these centres need to be close in proximity to farmers and not only a handful of centres in the country, with centres being 60 miles away from farmers.

“The timing of such a collection would also be important - it can’t happen in spring for example, when farmers are busy. We have asked Circol ELT to keep the cost of this to a minimum – it needs to be priced attractively for farmers.

Efficiency

“Circol ELT is in favour of doing something like this and is looking at the cost efficiency of such a scheme. It has proposed a recycling fee of €180 plus VAT per tonne. We have proposed that this fee be significantly reduced.

“According to an IFA member survey last year, there is a large demand for a once-off bring centre to recycle used agricultural tyres, once the fee is modest,” explained IFA environmental and rural affairs committee chair John Murphy.

In terms of the tyre recycling scheme, the IFA is in favour of the scheme, as it feels that recycling used tyres is the right thing to do.

The IFA is also pushing Circol ELT to keep the proposed fees to a minimum. The IFA believes that further amendments are needed and will be made to the initial costings that Circol ELT had proposed.

The IFA and Circol ELT are aware that there currently is no tyre recycling scheme in Northern Ireland and that the newly proposed levy may create a tyre-based black economy.

They also noted that this is a similar problem with the current tyre recycling tax in the automotive industry which is already in place.

The IFA has said that there is talk of a tyre recycling scheme being proposed in the North also, but, like the fertiliser register, it will take some time to be implemented.

Machinery exports

The IFA also discussed the huge amount of machinery built in Ireland and destined for export, such as slurry tankers, trailers and balers, etc, which are all fitted with tyres.

The IFA has proposed that machines being exported be exempt from the proposed levy. It is also seeking information about how the tyres are recycled.

Circol ELT, which operates Ireland’s tyre compliance scheme under approval from the Department of Environment, Climate Action and Communications (DECC), has proposed the agricultural tyre recycling tax in a submission to the Department.

If implemented, the new proposals would mean that all tractors and all agricultural machinery will be subject to a tyre recycling levy.

The cost of this proposed levy is dependent on the tyre’s weight.

For example, the initial proposals indicate that a tyre weighing 70.1kg to 150kg will cost €30 (€36.90 inc VAT), a tyre weighing 150.1kg to 270kg will cost €48 (€59.04 inc VAT) and a tyre weighing over 270kg will cost €80 (€98.40 inc VAT).

This will apply to new, second-hand and imported machines that are fitted with tyres. This tyre recycling levy proposal will be paid for by the end user, which will essentially be the farmer and the agricultural contractor.