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Benefits of the Ecopneus management system

The integrated system is designed to ensure an efficient and transparent service and will bring benefits both to the general public and the operators in the sector.

Benefits for consumers: Ecopneus will supervise the application and use of the waste recovery contribution, the economic instrument that will finance the recovery of ELTs. It will thus guarantee correct and transparent use of consumer money, by making sure that the recovery process is carried out in a cost-effective way.

Benefits for tyre fitters: Ecopneus monitors the system with a view to preventing speculation and illegal practices, and will guarantee a fair, efficient and uniform service across the whole country.

Benefits for operators in the recovery sector, Ecopneus will guarantee a constant supply of material for processing and help to develop new applications, also through collaboration with Universities and Research Centres.

By constantly monitoring the flow of End-of-Life Tyres, Ecopneus will thus ensure economic and environmental advantages for the whole country:

• Tax benefits for the State – finding and recovering the quantity of ELTs currently handled illegally will enable the tax authorities to collect about EUR 130-160 million a year from the VAT on new tyre sales, and another EUR 10 million in tax revenue from the legal management of end-of-life tyres (Legambiente’s estimate);
• Reduction in site clearing costs – Interrupting the supply to abusive and uncontrolled ELT landfill sites also reduces the costs of decontaminating polluted areas, which are often borne by the public; the cost of decontaminating all the sites discovered in the period between 2005 and september 2011 would amount to at least EUR 400-500 million;
• Protection of the environment –ELTs are bulky and poorly biodegradable, which means that they remain a long time where they are dumped and occupy large spaces. ELTs dumping in the fields exposes the population to serious risks in case of uncontrolled fires, which are difficult to estinguish, and result in the production of harmful substances that can be emitted into the air and cause leachate into the ground. In fact, the combustion of ELTs may be hazardous for human health unless performed inside duly authorized facilities. Last, but not least, the hollow shape of the tyre favours the accumulation of rainwater, thus creating an ideal habitat for the proliferation of mosquitoes and rats.