Tyre Stewardship Australia has endorsed a thorough audit and compliance process to assist better management of old tyres.
Matt Genever, TSA’s CEO, announced the updated governance on a LinkedIn post. Supporting his previous comments on TSA’s role as an effective administrator of the tyre product stewardship scheme, Mr Genever said its accreditation, audit and compliance activities needed to be robust.
“In short, if the TSA brand is designed to signify ‘best environmental practice’ for management of end of life tyres then we need to be sure our members are in fact delivering on these commitments,” said Mr Genever.
To achieve this, the TSA Board has endorsed a thorough audit and compliance function. It plans to undertake audits on new and previously accredited tyre collectors and recyclers by the end of 2015.
In addition, TSA will also embark on pilot audits across some accredited retail outlets. Mr Genevre said this was to ensure that “tyres are not ‘leaking’ out of the system for illegitimate means (such as dumping and stockpiling)”.
The TSA is also trialling a data collection tool to support these activities.
“The tyre industry as a whole has a long way to go and the markings of poor practice remain evident today. The TSA approach will utilise a number of different mechanisms to improve performance,” explained Mr Genever. “Whilst the audit and compliance work represents the ‘stick’, we will be working across the industry to inform and educate our members on best practice approaches in a number of areas. This approach will look to gradually raise the ideal of ‘best practice’ and eventually allow Australia to become true market leaders.”
The national tyre product stewardship scheme, run by TSA, is gaining momentum, with 1,400 organisations either accredited or in the accreditation process.
