A strong circular economy in Europe, where waste is treated within EU borders, depends on a well-functioning single market for both waste and recycled materials. This need is reinforced by recent high‑level analyses: both the Draghi report and the Letta report underline that creating a genuine single market for waste and recycled materials is essential for EU competitiveness and circularity, stressing that fragmented end‑of‑waste rules and barriers to cross‑border waste movements undermine scale, investment, and recycling capacity.  One of the key enablers of a single market is the development of EU-wide end-of-waste (EoW) criteria, which define the point at which certain waste ceases to be waste and becomes a product.

Developing harmonised EoW criteria for tyre-derived materials is essential to increase the uptake of ELT-derived materials in new products for high-value end-use markets. Several countries, including Spain, Italy and the UK have already introduced national EoW criteria for recycled rubber from tyres. However, harmonised criteria at EU level are crucial to remove trade and administrative barriers, achieve a well-functioning internal market, and ensure a level playing field across Member States. The objective should be to enable recycling, support the uptake of recycled materials, and foster research, innovation and industrialisation across materials and industries.

In 2022, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a report[1] identifying a list of priority waste streams, with the aim to find the most suitable candidate streams for which further EU-wide EoW criteria could be developed. Rubber recovered or recycled from ELTs ranked third in the list – yet, more than three years later, work on this stream has not begun.

Tyres Europe and Recyclers Europe call for the development of EU-wide End of Waste (EoW) criteria for the End-of-Life Tyres (ELT)-derived materials stream. The rubber supply chain is ready for the next step in the advancement and uptake of the recycling of ELT-derived materials.

In addition, materials from chemical recycling operations such as pyrolysis and devulcanisation should also be recognised as End-of-Waste so long as they fulfil the definition of recycling in the Waste Framework Directive.[2]

Supporting documentation:

AECOM report for in depth information via link.

REACH guidance from CEN available via link

We have published a new FAQ on End-of-Waste (EoW) criteria for End-of-Life Tyre (ELT)-derived materials, explaining why harmonised EU-wide rules are essential to unlock the full potential of tyre recycling in Europe. Today, fragmented national approaches create unnecessary administrative barriers and legal uncertainty, limiting trade, investment and the uptake of recycled materials. Our FAQ sets out what EoW means, why ELT-derived materials meet the relevant conditions, what the tyre and recycling industries are already doing to support harmonisation, and why the European Commission should now move forward with EU-wide criteria for materials from both mechanical and chemical recycling. The industry is ready, the market exists and the evidence is there — now we need the EU regulatory framework to catch up.

Download our FAQ below

[1] Scoping possible further EU-wide end-of-waste and by-product criteria https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128647

[2] Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC) Art. 3(17)