There are around 70 waste collection sites in Latvia where you can take your used car tires, and some tire services also accept tires. Some sites offer the collection of four tires ffor free, others charge a fee.
Kristaps Dreimanis, from Eco Baltia vide, said: "We have had three campaigns of free collection this year. One of them just ended in Saldus, where people handed in more than 30 tonnes of tires. There was one in Liepaja, where 100 tonnes were handed over free of charge. There was also one of over 30 tonnes in Sigulda - people brought their old tires and could leave them for free."
Four tires are currently accepted free of charge in Northern Vidzeme by waste manager ZAAO and in Riga and a few other Latvian cities by CleanR.
Valerijs Stankevičs, CleanR's Chairman of the Board, said that the company has already collected more than 1,100 tonnes of used tires this year. The company also offers campaigns where its crews drive to certain municipalities, with advance notice, and residents have the opportunity to hand in their tires.
Stankevičs said: "Only passenger car tires are accepted. Tires must be handed in without any other type of admixture. In other words, one should not dig them out of the soil and carry them with the soil or concrete blocks."
Rudīte Vesere, Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Climate and Energy (MoCE), explained why some waste managers accept car tires free of charge, while others charge a fee: "The producer responsibility system stipulates that the producer, in the case of Latvia it would be the one who brings the tires here and sells them, is responsible for the collection and management of waste tires. Of course, most distributors do not do this themselves. They contract a producer responsibility scheme, which takes on this responsibility, and they look for a waste manager. The waste manager contracts the collection and subsequent management of the tires.
Thus, waste managers with such a contract will accept four car tires free of charge, while others may charge a fee. The collected tires are then recycled.
CleanR's CEO stressed: "Every tire finds a second life in another form and serves as a raw material for another product."
Eco Baltia vide added: "Rubber pellets, metal, and textiles are produced. The rubber pellets can be used to make playgrounds. Runways, all playgrounds are made of tire rubber."
Some of the tires are burned in a dedicated furnace to extract energy.
