A chasm that exceeds ninety million euros. It is caused by ghost tires every year. In other words, those that escape the “census” in which sale (first) and disposal (later) is put together because “sold in black or following unofficial channels and therefore out of any possible tracing”.
The problem
The Ecopneus consortium, the body that collects, processes and recovers around 200,000 tons of end-of-life tires out of a total of 360,000 annually, raises the problem, urging control measures and hoping for greater traceability. “In addition to creating tax damage, which with our experts we estimated at around 80 million euros a year – said Federico Dossena, Ecopneus general manager – this” bug of illegality “also has consequences for honest operators, putting in the field a real unfair competition and missing a figure that travels around 12 million euros “.
The observatory
In order to tackle this problem, the “Observatory on illegal flows of tires and end-of-life tires (ELTs) in Italy” was set up a few years ago, of which Legambiente and the consortia Ecopneus, EcoTyre and Greentire – which manage approximately 85% of the national total – and the trade associations Confartigianato, CNA, Airp, Federpneus and Assogomma. Objective: identify the cases in which to intervene and propose solutions. And to carry out this initiative, the observatory has promoted the “CambioPulito” platform.
The estimates and the report
Not only. Among the activities also the report “Illegal flows of tires in Italy”. A work that lasted two and a half years in which numbers, scenarios and proposals are put together. The starting point is the estimate of the tons of tires that are placed “illegally on the national market” every year and which, according to the report, are between “thirty thousand and 40 thousand tons”.
The 92 million euro chasm
These data, the report continues, “are linked to a non-payment of the environmental contribution for their collection and recycling equal to a total of about 12 million euros, VAT evasion estimated at about 80 million euros and exposure to risk of abandonment in the environment of end-of-life tires deriving from illegal activities, which do not exist and are therefore outside the rules of the national ELT management system ».