International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

Considering the impact on the consumer, authorities who have implemented a charge
previously have kept the charge below €4 for each tyre. To the extent that in many
schemes, revenue is used to fund the collection and recycling/recovery of tyres, this
would seem to be an indication of the costs of ensuring adequate treatment takes
place. Evidently, this revenue must also cover costs for administration of the scheme.
29.7 Effects on Technical Change / Innovation
The main aim of many product charges on tyres is to promote the alternative use of
waste tyres and to encourage technical change and innovation. In many cases,
alternative products are created from waste tyres, some of which include:
513
� Retreading of tyres (reuse);
� Conversion into carpet underlay;
� Conversion into a soft cushioning material for children's play areas;
� Reprocessed into rubber mats and other goods; and
� De-vulcanised and re-converted into rubber.
Examining the exact change in a particular country can be difficult. Table 29-3 shows
the broad uses of collected tyres in Denmark from 1995-2000. It can be shown that
as the supply of tyres has increased, the majority of tyres have been converted in to
rubber powder, or incinerated. There has also been a relatively constant level of tyre
retreading undertaken during this period, representing a declining share of the total.
Table 29-3: Use of Collected Tyres in Denmark 1995-2000
Retreading or
continued use (tonnes)
Rubber powder or
incineration (tonnes)
2nd 2nd half
half
1995 1995
1995
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes
1996 1996 1997 1997 1998 1998 1999 1999 2000
2000
3,300 5,477 4,581 5,472 3,508 6,690
3,345 6,060 12,648 11,454 13,806 27,728
Source: Adapted from:
www2.mst.dk/common/Udgivramme/Frame.asp?http://www2.mst.dk/udgiv/publications/2002/87-
7972-027-7/html/kap03_eng.htm
29.8 Social and Distributional Consequences
In principle, as with most product taxes, tyre levies could be regressive in their
impact. However, patterns of car ownership tend to be such that poorer households
simply do not own cars. In addition, the magnitude of the levies concerned is minimal
when compared with the costs of cars, though they might be of the order 1% of the
cost of new tyres.
As regards industry, clearly this may benefit recyclers and re-treaders, as well as, in
the case of Denmark, incineration facilities, whilst landfill site operators may lose a
material which is occasionally problematic, though possibly useful in assisting
drainage at the base of cells.