The Danish national tyre collection scheme is probably the most climate and environment-friendly tyre collection scheme in the world.
Introduced back in 1995, the Danish tyre collection scheme was the very first such scheme in the world. At that time, focus was environmental remediation and clean-up of landfills with scrap tyres.
In contrast to most other collection schemes, which are based on producer responsibility, the Danish system is a levy-based system, charging a fixed levy on all tyres brought into the Danish market. The collected levies are pooled into a public fund supervised by the tax authorities, and the Ministry of the Environment lays down the rules for the distribution of funds to private collectors of end-of-life tyres (ELTs) from garages and recycling centres.
From the word go, the system proved extremely efficient, and all used tyres were collected. There are no incentives for neither private consumers nor garage owners not to have their old tyres recycled, as all collection and processing costs are paid up front at the time when tyres are brought into the market.
With effect from July 2017, the Danish Ministry of the Environment has again pioneered and taken the next step in relation to environment-friendly tyre collection and recycling. The processing of tyres into new raw material entails significant climate-related benefits in comparison with incineration (energy recovery). These benefits are now reflected in the reimbursing of levies from the tyre collection pool. The higher the recycling percentage achieved by the tyre processing company, the higher the fee per tonne reimbursed to the tyre collector.
It thus now truly matters, not only that all used tyres are collected – but also how they are further processed. The more climate and environment-friendly the technology of the processor/recycler, the more the collector will receive from the fund.
The Danish Ministry of the Environment has certified Genan with a recycling rate that represents the percentage of rubber and steel recovered through Genan technology. The remaining textile (residual) fraction is currently incinerated in cement kilns for energy recovery. It is high priority for the product and technology developers at Genan to define and develop new applications and markets for this fraction – and gradually bring the recycling rate up to 100%.
