Andres Vainola, board chair at Enefit Power, said: "Enefit Power has been using chipped tires along with oil shale in its oil production since last summer."

"We have conducted various analysis, including the chemical composition of the oil. We have consequently noticed that different laboratory results reveal variations in the content of some oil components," Vainola went on, speaking at the opening of a tire chip plant, operated by private sector firm Ragn-Sells, in Kunda, Ida-Viru County on Friday.

"This discrepancy is the result of differences in measurement methodologies."

"In our effort to offer the market a product with a consistent and verified composition, we are conducting additional oil composition analyses. We have paused the use of tire chips until we receive further results from the laboratories," he added.

Enefit Power says the recycling of discarded old tires is one part of their long-term strategy and chemical industry concept, and will create the opportunity to turn waste which is difficult to process in other fields into useful raw materials in the longer term.

"This is a circular economy project which has great potential, and to revive and implement similar projects more broadly, it is vital that the regulatory environment becomes more flexible and thereby promotes the introduction of new solutions," Vainola went on, referring to the complexity of EU bureaucracy.

Eesti Energia announced the introduction of shredded tires as a source of oil for the Enefit 140 plant in the summer of 2016.

However, three months later, the company noted that there was a lack of suitable input material available nationwide.

In 2023, a deal was made to import chipped tires from Sweden, an initiative recognized as the Green Deed of the Year for Ida-Viru County

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