The Minister for the Environment has confirmed that Circol ELT - which operates Ireland's tyre compliance scheme - is planning to collect used tyres "lawfully held on farms" this year.

According to Minister Darragh O'Brien the collection is part of a move to support the agri sector to adapt to regulations set out in a scheme designed to ensure that producers have responsibility to "finance the collection and environmentally sound waste management of their products at end of life".

Agricultural tyres had been scheduled to be included in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Scheme, which operates similar to the system in place for farm plastics, from the beginning of this year.

Under existing legislation first introduced in 2017 tyre producers pay an environmental management cost (EMC) to Circol ELT, who organise the collection of end-of-life tyres.

Previously agricultural, truck or bus, construction and industrial tyres did not incur an EMC.

However it was proposed by the government last year that from January 1, 2025, the EPR Scheme would include all categories of bus, truck, agricultural, construction and industrial waste tyres.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) said that currently the regulations do not "impose a visible Environmental Management Cost (vEMC) on agricultural, truck, bus, construction, and industrial tyres". 

They also added: "The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy 2020-2025, however, commits to extending this provision to these categories of tyre to ensure best environmental management and the fair distribution of costs across the sector".

According to the DECC the management of used tyres is a "technological, economic and ecological challenge" for Ireland.

Last year it held a consultation on extending the EPR Scheme which also included proposed new EMCs for various categories:

Minister Darragh O'Brien said although the consultation on the extension of the scheme closed in late October last year his department is currently considering the "implications of an extension of the scheme".

He said that "any such extension is underpinned by careful analysis of the implications, with a view to the long-term viability of an extended scheme".

Previously the president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Francie Gorman, warned that the inclusion of agricultural tyres in the the EPR Scheme would create a new "black economy and result in a significant reduction in VAT and revenue lost to the Irish exchequer".