UK Tyre Recovery Sector Fights Illegal Operations, Slim Margins
After experiencing more than a year of general economic recession, the UK tyre recovery sector enters 2010 functioning at roughly full capacity, with around 500,000 tonnes of tyres being collected last year. This puts tonnages on a par with the latest complete data compiled by the Used Tyre Working Group in 2008. However, while the UK has managed to limp out of recession with tyre recovery tonnages generally intact, there are signs that the same market pressures that have put the squeeze on new tyre profit margins are putting pressures on the collection part of the tyre life cycle too; and that regulation-dodging is still a problem.
So, while its good that tonnages in 2009 were relatively stable, the bad news is that illegal tyre collection and disposal activities are rife. What’s worse is that they complexity of such schemes has developed to the point that the disruption caused by rogue “white van man” collectors is now at the bottom end of a wide spectrum. This means large scale scam disposal rings and – in some cases – even franchise operations that are in operation taking money from tyre dealers, but not properly fulfilling their duty of care obligations.