To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the environmental impact of (a) retread and (b) new tyres, using a life-cycle analysis approach. [99235]
In 2001, BLIC (the liaison office of the European rubber industry) produced a life cycle analysis of car tyres. The report did not specify the environmental load of retreaded tyres, but did highlight the importance of rolling resistance as a factor in determining its benefits.Retreaded tyres, nevertheless, would seem to offer a number of advantages as an end-of-life recovery option because of the reduced requirement for raw materials in their manufacture, as compared with new tyres, and by
| 1 January to 31 December 2001 | HCI | S02 | NOx | CO | PM | Cd and TI | Hg | Other Metals1 | HF | Dioxins | VOCs2 | NH32 | Total |
| Dudley (MES) | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 13 |
| Wolverhampton (MES) | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 9 |
| Billingham (SITA) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 25 |
| Coventry (C and S WDC) | 29 | 2 | 3 | 57 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 94 |
| Tyseley (Onyx) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 3 |
| Nottingham (WRE) | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 6 |
| Sheffield (Onyx) | 14 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 36 |
| Stoke (MES) | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 15 |
providing the tyre with another life, thereby reducing the numbers of new tyres needed, and subsequently requiring disposal.
The Department of Trade and Industry has recently commissioned a further study to examine the environmental credentials of tyre retreading.