May 2008 Financial News

TCL's plan: Don't dump tyres, burn

May 05, 2008

A leading cement manufacturer is lobbying Government to incinerate waste tyres in the country.

Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) Group chief executive officer Dr Rollin Bertrand told the Express that the company has been trying for the past seven years, not only with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, but also the governments of Jamaica and Barbados.

However, he says the lack of upgraded legislation was keeping back the process in all three countries.

"The TCL Group has been on a campaign to convince the governments to put in place a mechanism for the incineration of tyres in the three cement plants in the region," he explained.

"We do not have to reinvent the wheel. Tyre importers can be required (by law) to pay US$4 per tyre (so-called 'user-pay' system), which will then be used for the collection, sorting and incineration of tyres.

"Essentially the US$4 is divided equally among the parties for the services provided and will help to recover the investment in the equipment needed to carry out the service."

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), scrap tyres are used as fuel because of their high heating value.

"Using scrap tyres is not recycling, but is considered a beneficial use-it is better to recover the energy from a tyre rather than landfill it," a September 2007 US EPA report on tyre-derived fuel and management of tyres says.

The report added that tyres produce the same amount of energy as oil and 25 per cent more energy than coal.

Although dumping of tyres is illegal in Trinidad, just recently more than 140 used tyres were dumped in a sugarcane field road off the Manahambre Main Road in Ste Madeleine. Many have been filled with rainwater, turning them into breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which were mainly responsible for the spread of dengue fever.

The sight was not uncommon as old tyres could be seen everywhere in the country, especially in canefields. They are thrown at the roadside, used to ignite fires at road protests or just left lying around. Apart from harbouring mosquitoes, the burning of tyres is bad for health because the rubber is highly toxic and hazardous.

Albon Scott, executive manager environmental projects, at the Solid Waste Management Company Limited (SWMCOL), recently told the Express that tyres were currently buried at the Beetham Landfill.

"Our temporary measure is to put them in the landfill, at least we know where they are. However, that poses a problem especially if there is a fire at the landfill site."

The Environmental Project manager then called on Government to invest in a tyre shredder.

"There have been attempts to get that type of equipment but we have not gotten it as yet," he explained.

"The wire could be taken out and sold through a steel factory and the rubber crumb of the tyre can be used in road material as part of aggregate, or it can be made into new tyres as well."

Betrand believes that incinerating tyres in a cement kiln is the perfect solution.

"There is no ash, no smell and since the tyre is recycled, it provides the optimum environmental solution," he added.

"Even the steel belting in the tyre is utilised by the cement manufacturing process. We can also cut back on natural gas as a fuel and use tyres instead."

TCL's kilns at Claxton Bay can incinerate around 2.5 million tyres a year, while Trinidad and Tobago generates around 800,000 tyres (and rising).

In 1998, scientists at Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC) put 500 tyres together to form a reef the size of a tennis court and dropped it into Poole Bay, Dorset. The reef has thrived and now boasts species such as lobsters and wrasse, a type of fish.

Ken Collins, senior research fellow at the SOC, said the substances that come out of the tyre did not affect the marine life growing on the reef.


Source:
Kristy Ramnarine
Daily Express
Monday, May 5th 2008

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161318620