In its recent press release, Ecopneus – Italian non-profit end-of-life tire management authority – informed about the reduction of the environmental contribution levied on new tires, greater controls on online tire purchases, better service for tire specialists and more stringent collection obligations to avoid any risk of end-of-life tire disposal in the open environment. These are the main novelties of the new Decree for the management of ELTs (DM 182/2019), introduced to improve the end-of-life tire recycling industry in Italy.

Ecopneus says that this way the industry will have clearer and more transparent rules for all parties involved, for the benefit of operators and for an increasing recycling of tires.

The Decree was published in Italian Gazzetta Ufficiale (n.93, April 8). According to the ELT authority, the new Decree for the management of ELTs, contains revision of the former ELF management practices. The system undergoes some improvements to ensure that the tires are properly recycled and markets are developed to create demand for recycled rubber products on industrial and consumer goods markets.

Among the main novelties introduced, the document stipulates that the tire disposal fees levied on consumers should be decreased in case if the preceding year ended with budget surplus. Also, the document obliges ELT managers to carry out the collection throughout the country. Giovanni Corbetta, General Manager of Ecopneus, says that the new regulations are very beneficial for the organization’s work.

In the paragraph below, the article describes major novelties introduced to the regulations.

Reduction of the “environmental contribution” fees for consumers, Ecopneus says, will be a good news for tire buyers, as any end-of-year surpluses in the budget will have to be used to reduce the amount of the “environmental contribution” fees levied from consumers on new tires.

In addition, Ecopneus reports about anticipated checks on online tire purchases. With the establishment of the "Authorized Representative", tire manufacturers and importers with registered offices abroad (such as web platforms for the purchase of tires) are required to report about the fees gathered.

Another benefit of the new law is that end-of-life tire managing companies will now have to guarantee the collection of ELTs throughout the country, reporting to the Ministry the quantities collected every six months according to the geographical macro-areas identified by the Decree itself. There is also an obligation to manage ELTs corresponding to the types of tires put on the market the previous year (large, medium or small ones such as those for cars and motorcycles). The Decree also obliges to respond to the requests for collection of ELTs by tire specialists based on their order of arrival, without giving preference or priority to ELT generation points in particular. The objective is to standardize the collection obligations between all subjects, preventing only areas of easier service and lower cost from being served, or that easier and cheaper types of management such as car and motorbike ELTs are preferred.

Ecopneus says that the Decree will bring more transparency to the work of ELT managers. The ELT management companies will now have to inform the Ministry of their performance and have a structured system for managing end-of-life tires, as well as meet tire collection obligations on the whole national territory.

Article by Ecopneus.