The first report on collection and recycling of End of Life Tyres (ELT) coming from the Italian vehicle dismantling sector was published on February 17 by "Comitato PFU", the non-profit management committee that has been in charge of this activity since 2011.

According to the report, nearly 20.000 tons of ELT were collected in Italy in 2014 in the vehicle dismantling process (+15,9% compared to the previous year), and 100% of them were destined to recycling. The consistent growth in collection is a proof that the system, the first of its kind in Europe, is working well, and can cover the entire Italian territory and market. This system is parallel and complementary to the other one managed in Italy by Ecopneus, which is in charge of collecting and recycling ELTs coming from the periodic tyres replacement during the car lifetime.

The "Comitato PFU" was created by the Italian Ministry of the Environment, is headed by the ACI-Automobile Club d'Italia (Italian Motorists organization)and constituted by four other members, representatives of various associations in the transportation sector (vehicles producers, tyres manufacturers and importers, vehicle dismantlers and consumers). The committee decides every year the amount of the tax that consumers have to pay when buying a vehicle, which is meant to cover the costs of recycling a set of tyres from a dismantled car, and then allocates the resulting funds in order to properly run the collection and recycling of ELTs over the national territory.

Instead of being incinerated, the ELTs are processed and reused as secondary raw material, in roads foundations, soundproof panels and in cements or asphalts for paving roads, thus allowing a great reduction in CO2 emissions (39.000 CO2e in 2014)

The report can be downloaded from the official website (only in Italian)