ELTs, Ecopneus takes in charge the disposal of illegally sold tires too

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The Consortium collected 2000 tons of old tires that are not covered by recycling contributions and threaten economy and environment.

Illegal sales damage not only the economy, but also the environment. This is the case of tires: if they are sold outside the legal circuits, collection and recycling costs are not covered by taxes, and tires easily end up being dispersed in the environment. A significant problem, considering that by the end of 2015 there were 220 thousand “illegal” tires that needed to be disposed of. A 2.000 ton burden that was taken up by Ecopneus upon request of the Ministry for the Environment, particularly of the minister Gianluca Galletti.

The collection of the tires took place a few days before Christmas with an extraordinary procedure, which was absolutely exceptional due to the unavailability of resources usually provided by taxes. In the days before this initiative, Ecopneus had carried on its collection activity even after achieving the targets set by the law, facing additional expenses that were not covered by tax contributions. The collection had been interrupted on December 14th because there were no more resources available.

“In order to prevent this problem from reappearing next year – said Giovanni Corvetta, Director General of Ecopneus – it is essential to make sure that all replacement operators sell their tires with a regular procedure and with all necessary tax documents. This is the only way to collect enough resources to cover the recovery costs of all end-of-life tires we produce. It is imperative to expose the turnover of illegal sales and to fight it with all means available. The costs of the black market are borne by honest operators and above all by taxpayers: illegal sales damage the state treasury because no VAT is paid on them, which forces producers to increase their contributions to face the environmental emergency caused by the tires abandoned. Ecopneus is ready to do all it can to fight the illegal abandonment that happens when tires are not regularly collected. However, to solve this blatant malfunctioning it is really necessary that all operators of this sector and all industry associations concerned offer their support and show an ethic and correct behaviour.”