A 700,000 euros funding provided by Irish authorities helped farmers recycle tons of tires in September, which represented the equivalent of half a million car tires.

The collection points which were scattered all over the country and were backed by IFFPG, the national farm plastics recycling scheme, were introduced to support and encourage responsible waste management among farmers.

The nationwide program managed to receive over 4,200 tons of scrap tires of various sizes brought by over 2,000 farmers at special tire collection points that operated four days. During the collection days, farmers could recycle over 300 car tires for only 45 euros, whereas the commercial rate stands at 500 euros. The offer was of immense appeal to the farmers, and, on average, each farmer managed to hand in approximately 220 tires.

The most successful collection has been reported at Athenry Mart point, which managed to receive 140,000 tires during 10 hours. After the step, Drogheda-based Irish tire recycler received the half of the collected tires for processing to get crumb materials which could be used in surfacing and paving projects.

Commenting on the collection days, Liam Moloney, General Manager of IFFPG, said that they didn’t expect the initiative to be so successful and the farmers’ positive attitude towards recycling demonstrated that massive accumulations of waste were kept on farms.

Since 90s, accumulation of tire waste has been growing on farms after agriculture workers started to opt for baled silage replacing conventional pit silage. Thus, it led to significant growth of waste tires in Irish farmlands.

The state funding has been allocated amid other measures, which were taken to advance environmentally responsible waste management in Ireland. Earlier, 1 million euros were provided to state officials to conduct programs for clearance of illegal tire stockpiles.

Article by Kilkenny People.