# Tyre EWC code 16 01 03 for every end-of-life tyre. Not hazardous, but banned from landfill.

> Tyre EWC code: 16 01 03 for end-of-life car, van, lorry and plant tyres, why tyres can’t go to landfill, and the limits on reusing whole tyres on site.
> Web page: https://complyonsite.com/tools/ewc-code-finder?waste=tyres

- Free, no account
- Based on the UK List of Waste and GOV.UK guidance
- Nothing is stored

## Are old tyres hazardous waste?

No. End-of-life tyres are 16 01 03, and WM3 lists it as absolute non-hazardous: there’s no hazardous partner to rule out, so tyres move on a waste transfer note. It’s the list’s only code for whole tyres, whatever vehicle they came off. Tyres shredded or granulated at a treatment site leave it as 19 12 04, plastic and rubber.

## Can tyres go to landfill or in a skip?

Not to landfill. In England, whole and shredded used tyres are banned from landfill, apart from bicycle tyres and tyres more than 1,400 mm across. Keep tyres out of skips bound for landfill and have them collected on their own as 16 01 03, by a registered waste carrier, to a site that can take them.

## Can you reuse old tyres on site?

Storing and using whole waste tyres needs an environmental permit. In England, the Environment Agency won’t normally act if you don’t have one but follow RPS 301:

- Crash barriers: up to 1,000 tyres a site.
- Planters: up to 50 tyres a site.
- Foundations and retaining walls: up to 1,000 tyres, ram-filled with earth or similar inert material, with building regulations approval, and never below the water table.
- Store them where they’ll be used, no more than you need, for no more than 3 months.

Baling, shredding or re-treading tyres needs a T8 exemption: up to 60 tonnes of truck tyres or 40 tonnes of other tyres in any 7 days, in piles of no more than 10 tonnes with a fire break between them.

### Sources

- [List of Waste, as retained in UK law (legislation.gov.uk)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2000/532/annex)
- [GOV.UK, Vehicle and oily wastes: how to classify](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vehicle-and-oily-wastes-how-to-classify)
- [Environment Agency, WM3 waste classification guidance](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-classification-technical-guidance)
- [GOV.UK, Dispose of waste to landfill](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dispose-of-waste-to-landfill)
- [Environment Agency, Using whole waste tyres: RPS 301](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/using-whole-waste-tyres-rps-301/using-whole-waste-tyres-rps-301)
- [GOV.UK, T8 waste exemption: mechanically treating end-of-life tyres](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/waste-exemption-t8-mechanically-treating-end-of-life-tyres)

The codes apply across the UK. The landfill ban, RPS and exemption rules here are England’s; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own.