Scheme to reduce tyre waste now running
Aotearoa New Zealand’s first priority product stewardship scheme for end-of-life tyres will be fully operational from 1 September.
Read the full press release [Beehive]
Every year, New Zealand imports around 6.5 million tyres. Of these, only about 40 per cent are recycled or exported.
The remaining tyres tend to go to landfill or are stockpiled or illegally dumped. Communities and councils are often left with the clean-up.
Under the industry-led product stewardship scheme, called Tyrewise, more end-of-life tyres will be collected and repurposed.
Product stewardship is where producers take responsibility for reducing a product’s environmental impact.
- From 1 March customers started paying a stewardship fee when buying tyres from retailers. If you buy a newly imported vehicle, the fee is included at first registration. The fee varies depending on the type and weight of tyre. It is $6.65 plus GST for a standard passenger car tyre. The stewardship fee is similar to the ad-hoc fees people were already paying on tyres.
- From 1 September the Tyrewise scheme will be fully operational, and retailers cannot charge ad-hoc tyre disposal fees.
The stewardship fee covers tyre collection and transportation. It also provides an incentive to process and manufacture end-of-life tyres into new products.
Some of the revenue raised from the tyre stewardship fee will be invested in local infrastructure, and research into new sustainable uses for end-of-life tyres.