New Zealand's first regulated product stewardship scheme for recycling used tyres, designed and run by Hawke's Bay company 3R Group, will be trialled from August before going live next year.
3R Group general manager of innovation Trevor Tutt said the Tyrewise scheme has been in the works for over a decade to address a market failure for the approximately 6.5 million used tyres that reach end-of-life in New Zealand each year.
"There's no effective management of tyres at the end of their life, there's too many options for easy disposal, dumping or exporting offshore," Tutt said.
He said the industry all came together to help design the scheme, which has become regulated under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008 over the last two years to make it mandatory.
"Everyone is really keen, they've been involved with this for quite some time so everyone wants to see this come to fruition," Tutt said.