The General Manager of Quality and Environmental Assessment, Jaime Alejandre, today sponsored the official presentation of the company SIGNUS Ecovalor as the first entity in charge of collecting and managing used tyres generated in Spain.

The company SIGNUS Ecovalor will meet the environmental responsibilities and ecological objectives established in the Royal Decree on End-of-Life Tyres approved by the Ministry of the Environment in December 2005. This entity must guarantee the prevention and correct environmental management of approximately 300,000 tonnes of tyres per year generated in our country.

The new legislative framework aims at prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery in order to protect the environment. And to do this, it seeks the greatest involvement of the private sector. The establishment of SIGNUS is the result of an excellent collaboration between the private sector of the tyre industry and the public administration. The Ministry of the Environment wants to transfer this good example to other sectors with which new regulations are being processed, such as the modification of the packaging law or the decree on construction and demolition waste.

The Ministry wants to break the binomial of ‘the greater the growth, the more waste’ through a Comprehensive Waste Prevention Plan on which it is currently working and seeks to incorporate market instruments, participation processes and an R+D+i aid system.

The environmental legislation being promoted by the Ministry seeks to reconcile the improvement of competitiveness and dynamization of companies with respect for and protection of the environment. And this is compatible with economic benefit. In the case of used tyres, the cost of collection and management is estimated at around 54 million euros and yet the profits obtained both from the sale of recycled materials and savings from their non-incineration can reach 300 million euros per year.