Bauska Municipality Tyre Collection Drive Draws More Participants Than in Spring

Residents of Bauska Municipality in Latvia handed in 4,565 used passenger-car tyres free of charge between 2 and 7 November, during the autumn edition of the «Dod riepām otru dzīvi» («Give Tyres a Second Life») collection drive. The spring drive gathered 4,106 tyres, so this time 459 more were collected. The figures were provided to the news portal by Anita Cehanoviča, a public relations specialist at SIA «Bauskas novada komunālserviss» (BNKS), which runs the municipality's sorted-waste collection sites.

Tyres could be dropped off at three BNKS sites: in Bauska (Biržu iela 8B), Iecava (Edvarta Virzas iela 46) and Vecumnieki (Ceriņu iela 17). Cehanoviča assessed residents' response as very positive. The busiest day at the Bauska site was Friday, 6 November, when 632 tyres were handed in. No queues formed.

There were also cases of people ignoring the site's opening hours. In Bauska, some residents arrived during the lunch break from noon to 1 p.m. and left tyres at the closed gates. People still turn up at the sites after the drive has ended hoping to hand in tyres free of charge, so BNKS urges residents to check the campaign dates and the site's working hours beforehand.

What happens to the tyres

The drive is organised for the ninth year by AS «AJ Power Recycling» together with SIA «3R», regional waste operators and local governments. Each car could hand in one set of passenger-car tyres, meaning four tyres without rims.

According to «AJ Power Recycling», almost 780 tonnes, or more than 77,000 used tyres, had been handed in for recycling across Latvia in this year's environmental drives before the autumn campaign. For the first time this year, legal entities could also hand in tyres free of charge.

The collected tyres are sorted, prepared for recycling and sent to specialised plants in Europe. There they are turned into rubber granules used for sports surfaces, road construction, building and the manufacture of technical products. The organisers remind the public that tyres must not be thrown into household waste bins or left in nature.