About 35% of scrap tyres imported in Cyprus every year pass through the port in Limassol without being subject to an environmental fee.
And thousands of them end up in illegal landfills while some 12,000 tons of them end up at the cement factory in Vassiliko where they are burned and used as fuel.
This is information the Audit Office on Thursday presented MPs with while expressing concern over the dangers posed by the accumulation of such a large stock of tire waste.
MPs also heard that significant gaps came to the fore as regards the tire waste management system.
These concern the collection, transport, temporary storage and re-use and recovery of waste.
