Farmers are being urged to recycle used tyres at a number of bring centres.

Environment Minister Denis Naughten is making €700,000 available to remove stockpiles of tyres from farms.

Collection dates for the removal of the stockpiles have been announced.

The collections will begin on Saturday September 29th at Cootehill Mart, Co Cavan from 9.00am to 5.00pm.

Collections will also take place in New Ross Mart, Co Wexford on Tuesday October 9th; Athenry Mart, Co Galway on Saturday October 13th and Gort Drum Mines, Monard in Co Tipperary on Saturday October 20th.

On the scheme, Minister Naughten said: "I made €1m available in funding last year for local authorities to deal with the clean-up of existing stockpiles of tyres across the country.

"I did this to support the introduction of a new compliance scheme for tyres and waste tyres from 1 October 2017.

"At that time I also indicated that I would look at the issue of tyres on farms.

"I am now following through on that commitment with the allocation of €700,000 to remove stockpiles on farms".

He added: "If there is sufficient funding remaining following these collections further bring centres may be announced".

"The funding will give farmers an opportunity to remove unwanted tyres from their farms and they can be assured that these tyres will be treated in an environmentally sound manner."

Image via @Dept_CCAE on Twitter

Environment chairman of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), Thomas Cooney, has welcomed the announcement.

"In July IFA secured a commitment from Minister Naughten that he would make available at least €700,000 to support the farming community to sustainably manage old and worn tyres which can no-longer be used to anchor silage pits."

"Since then a lot of work has taken place and the recent announcement of the bring centre dates, is delivery of Minister Naughten's commitment to IFA.

"It is important that farmers have a look around their farm-yards, gather up any used tyres and support this worthwhile initiative".

Under the Waste Management (Tyres and Waste Tyres) Regulations 2017, farmers are not allowed to stockpile tyres on farms.

Where farmers use tyres to cover silage, they are prohibited from having more than eight tyres per square meter of any silage pit's floor area.

Any farmer who wishes to take in waste tyres for the purposes of anchoring silage must register with the new tyre compliance scheme, Repak ELT.