As part of EU Green Week 2025, EuRIC hosted the webinar Driving Circularity: Unlocking the Potential of Tyre Recycling, bringing together key industry and policy stakeholders to tackle one of Europe’s most under-addressed circular economy challenges: tyre recycling.

Even though Europe collects most of its used tyres, approximately half are still incinerated, and many are shipped to third countries where processing standards are lower and environmental harm is often severe. EuRIC and industry leaders highlighted the urgent need to reframe how ELTs are handled – from burning waste materials and cost-driven exports to sustainable, high-value recovery to support circularity, avoid CO₂ emissions, and accelerate the development of a robust European value chain.

 “As EuRIC’s Tyre Recycling Manifesto supports, a fundamental shift is needed; from an incineration-oriented mindset to one that embraces material recovery and high value applications for End-of-Life tyres (ELTs)”, said Julia Ettinger, EuRIC’s Secretary General, kicking-off the event.

Maria Vera Duran, EuRIC’s Senior Technical Manager and moderator of the webinar, highlighted the opportunity for the industry to align with the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal, which aims to boost product circularity. She also pointed to the upcoming Circular Economy Act as a key step toward creating a single market for waste and recycled materials across Europe.

Echoing these comments, Gabriel Gomez, EuRIC’s Technical Advisor on tyres presented EuRIC’s manifesto, which sets out five points to boost circularity: increase demand through recycled content targets and green public procurement, ban exports of unprocessed tyres to third countries, and establish EU-wide end-of-waste criteria. It also calls for stronger eco-design rules and use of digital product passports to improve traceability. Finally, it urges a shift to risk-based chemical policies to support safe, high-quality tyre recycling in Europe.

Florian Flachenecker, Policy Officer at the European Commission (DG ENV) noted that while the Circular Economy Act is broader than tyres, it offers key opportunities to support tyre recycling, especially by speeding up EU-wide end-of-waste criteria and harmonising EPR schemes. He also pointed to green public procurement and a possible VAT exemption for recycled content as tools to boost demand.

Catherine Lenaerts, Managing Director at Febelauto, brought a national example from Belgium, where a strict no-export policy for end-of-life tyres is in place, supporting local recycling and rewarding nearby treatment facilities. According to Lenaerts, responsibility at home is possible, and it’s time this is replicated across Europe.

Lars Raahauge, Consultant for Environment and Business Development at GENAN, emphasised that poor eco-design remains the biggest obstacle for recyclers, who are held accountable for materials they can’t control. He welcomed the ESPR and Digital Product Passport as tools to improve traceability and called for tighter controls on ELT exports to stop environmentally harmful practices.

Georg Maxein,  Innovation Manager at Conradi+Kaiser, demonstrated the commercial potential of high-value applications using recycled tyre granulates. He also stressed the need for consistent chemical regulations –pointing out the contradiction that materials allowed in tyres are sometimes banned in recycled products -and called for stable, predictable legislation to support investment and innovation in circular manufacturing.

EuRIC extends its sincere thanks to all participants and speakers for their valuable insights and expertise, which underscored both the complexity of tyre recycling and the urgent need to accelerate action across Europe to address this often-overlooked waste stream.