Guidance

T8 waste exemption: mechanically treating end-of-life tyres

The T8 exemption allows you to treat small amounts of waste end-of-life tyres for recovery by baling, shredding, peeling, shaving or granulating.

From:
Environment Agency
Published
28 April 2014
Last updated
10 May 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Waste exemptions are changing and this will affect anyone who carries out a waste exemption activity. Defra’s consultation supplementary response document and its annexes explain the changes. This sets out which exemptions will be withdrawn or restricted. Changes to the exemptions are likely to start in 2025 but timescales have not been finalised.

Types of activity you can carry out

These include:

  • baling end-of-life tyres to use in construction
  • granulating end-of-life tyres to use in horse manége
  • re-treading end-of-life tyres so they can be reused as tyres
  • granulating end-of-life tyres again where the granulate is too big or needs further processing to comply with PAS 107

Types of activity you cannot carry out

You cannot:

Types of waste you can treat

The waste codes are those listed in the List of Wastes (LoW) Regulations. You must make sure your waste fits within the relevant waste code and description.

Waste code Type of waste
160103 End-of-life tyres
191204 Shredded or granulated end-of-life tyres only

Amount of waste you can treat

You can store or treat 60 tonnes of truck tyres or 40 tonnes of any other tyres over any 7-day period.

Key conditions

You can treat end-of-life tyres under this exemption, by:

  • granulating
  • baling
  • peeling
  • shaving
  • shredding
  • re-treading

You can treat shredded or granulated end-of-life tyres by granulating (you must do this indoors).

You can clean tyres and separate them from wheel rims before further treatment.

Within the 7-day limit, you must store the tyres in piles no bigger than 10 tonnes with a gap as a fire break between each pile.

Other things you need to know

There are two relevant Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) for end-of-life tyres:

There is a Waste Quality Protocol for the use of waste derived rubber materials produced under PAS 107 Waste Quality Protocols.

If you recover waste materials and sell them as products (recycled materials) rather than waste, you must comply with the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulations

You can use end-of-life tyres that have been baled to PAS 108 standard under U2 – Using baled end-of-life tyres in construction.

You can use granulated end-of-life tyres in horse manège under U8 – Using waste for a specified purpose.

Where it is appropriate, you can use treated end-of-life tyres under U9 – Using waste to manufacture finished goods.

Register a T8 exemption

You need to register this exemption with the Environment Agency if you will meet the requirements:

Register an exemption.

If you want to treat more than the amount of waste allowed under this exemption, you must apply for an environmental permit.

Definitions

Hazardous waste – see How to classify different types of waste.

Updates to this page

Published 28 April 2014
Last updated 10 May 2024 + show all updates

  1. Updated the message at the start to say changes to exemptions are expected to start in 2025 but that timescales have not been finalised.

  2. We have added information about changes to this waste exemption that are likely to happen during 2024 to 2025.

  3. Under the section 'Types of activity you cannot carry out', we have removed the link to LRWP 414 which we will withdraw on 20 November 2019. We have added a link to a new LRWP instead - Sorting waste tyres under a T8 waste exemption: LRWP 72.

  4. First published.

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