Extended producer responsibility for tires

Producers who supply tires on the Swedish market are obliged to register with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Producers who intend to release tires on the market must register. 

The notification must be made before tires are released on the Swedish market via the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's e-service. 

The notification to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency must contain the following information

• Producer name
• Producer’s contact name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address
• Personal number or organisation number of the producer or, if such does not exist, the tax registration number  
• How the producer intends to fulfill the requirement to hire or themselves provide a producer responsibility organisation.

What type of tires are placed on the market; tires from passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, tractors, all-terrain vehicles, power tools, trailers or after vehicles.

It is the producer's responsibility that the submitted information is up to date.

If you are a producer and not established in Sweden, you may appoint a producer representative established in Sweden. If a representative is not appointed, you are responsible for your obligations in Sweden. If you choose to appoint a representative, this must be done through a written power of attorney. The representative will then be responsible for your obligations according to the Ordinance (2023:133) on producer responsibility for tires and the Ordinance (2021:1002) on littering fees. 

Tires that are on the car when it is scrapped are not covered by producer responsibility for tires but belong to producer responsibility for cars. 

The car manufacturer is responsible for the entire car, including the car's tires, when it is put on the market. The car manufacturer is therefore considered a producer for the tires that are on the car that the car manufacturer manufactured or brought into Sweden.

During the car’s lifetime, the tires are replaced, usually several times, and replaced with new tires. The new tires fitted to the car have been sold separately and therefore fall under the manufacturer's responsibility for tires. Since it is not practical to keep track of exactly which tires are the responsibility of the car producer and the tire producer, the practice is to set off the tires that were on the car when it came on the market against those that are on the car when it is scrapped. From that approach it follows that it is the car producer that should be considered responsible for the tires that are removed from the car when it is scrapped.

From 1 January 2024 tire producers must hire or themselves provide an approved producer responsibility organisation that receives and collects end-of-life tires. In order to operate a producer responsibility organisation, businesses need to apply for approval to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

There are several requirements that a producer responsibility organization must meet, for example having a nationwide reception system where tires must be received free of charge. Producer responsibility organisations must also report data to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency every year.

Producers must report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency every year by March 31 at the latest. Information on the amount of tires that the producer released on the Swedish market or brought into Sweden to be used in professional activities must be provided. The reporting must be done in the Environmental Protection Agency's e-service for reporting and must be done for the first time no later than March 31, 2025, for data relating to 2024.

A producer must pay an annual fee of SEK 1,000. The fee applies per producer and per calendar year.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency sends out the supervisory fee by e-mail as an invoice.

The supervisory fee is used to keep a digital register of all producers and to ensure that the regulations are followed.

The fees must be paid for the first time in 2024.

If an operator has not complied with the legislation, it may have to pay an environmental sanction fee. An environmental sanction fee is an administrative fee that is charged by a supervisory authority when an operator has infringed a fee-based provision under the Environmental Code, or the regulations that have been decided on the basis of the Environmental Code. 

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has the central supervisory guidance and follow-up responsibility for producer responsibility for tires.

The municipalities are since before responsible for local supervision within producer responsibility. It means that, among other things, they supervise that the collection and handling of end-of-life tires works locally.