The agricultural tyre waste bring centres have collected “somewhere in the region of 4,200 – 4,300t of tyres”, which is said to be the equivalent of “around 500,000 car tyres” at the four bring centres.
The general manager of the Irish Farm Film Producers Group (IFFPG), Liam Moloney, was speaking to AgriLand on the recent scheme and said: “We have provided a service to around 2,200 – 2,300 farmers in total.”
Having said this, he acknowledged that it was the Government who provided the funding for the scheme and IFFPG “simply facilitated the initiative”.
He also remarked that the uptake was higher than he has expected.
Something like this was never done before, so it was very hard to predict how many farmers would come out and how many tonnes would be collected. I would say the turnout was higher than we expected.
As a result of the Government funding, 3t (330 car tyres) could be disposed of for €45. Moloney added that the service was “good value”.
He concluded by confirming that he believes there is a demand for the service in other counties.
“It suggests to me that there is a lot of unused tyres out there and if farmers get the opportunity, they will bring them in large quantities.”
National roll out
The Irish Farmers’ Association’s Environmental Committee chairman, Thomas Cooney, has said: “I will be calling on the Minister of State for Rural Affairs and Natural Resources, Sean Canney, and the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton, to secure more funding in order to roll out a national scheme.
Cooney praised farmers’ willingness to recycle, saying that over 75% of all plastic used on farms is recycled annually, which he said is “far higher” than any other sector in the Irish industry.
Cooney said that a letter has already been sent to Minister Canney to meet with him and we will be hoping to meet Minister Bruton in the coming weeks as well.
He stressed that this service is of huge benefit to everyone in the countryside as it keeps farms clean and tidy.