The Northern Midlands Council wants help to deal with the growing stockpile of used tyres stored at Longford. There is concern that if a solution is not found soon tyres will be dumped along roadsides and in the country. JAMES BRADY reports.
NORTHERN Midlands Council is bearing the state's weight of used tyres, but will soon shrug its responsibilities if no state or federal support is received.
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The council is home to a stockpile of up to two million used tyres outside Longford, and - amid a string of failed recycling proposals - is fed up, according to mayor David Downie.
Proposals have included a failed Green Distillation Technologies project at Campbell Town, and another non-event at Avoca.
A shredding program for the existing tyre stockpile at Longford was recently approved, which plans to shred 25 per cent of the existing tyre collection.
"This situation is urgent, at the moment the stockpile has an end date, a date when no more tyres are able to be stored," Cr Downie said.
"These will instead end up dumped all over the countryside, we need to sort this out.
"I believe our council has the skills to do it if we can work with the state government, I believe we can solve this issue."
In January, 2014, federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt announced national support for the Tyre Stewardship Australia initiative.
The initiative is an industry-led scheme that was constructed to establish a certified chain for tyres, an umbrella that extends to industries such as mining.
Tasmania has a slew of registered retailers - such as Bridgestone Select and Beaurepaires For Tyres - but no registered collectors and, importantly, no registered recyclers.
That means the retailers, who receive the end-of-life tyres, do not have a means by which they can ensure the tyres go to an environmentally sound use - as per the stewardship scheme's mantra.
Cr Downie said he wanted the state government to help push to adopt greater responsibility and regulation in Tasmania, lest the approximate 7500 tyres a week it produces land in the bush or on roadsides.
"At the moment different companies have different costs associated with dealing with those tyres, I think one solution is to have a set charge," he said.
"This is something we're working on with a working group, we hope to persuade the Environment Minister (Matthew Groom) to form regulation."
He said the council had issued an order to stop tyre collections at the Longford site by March, but had since received a proposal for a $10 million sustainable recycling scheme from a private company.
The company said it would take its development elsewhere, if tyres were not able to continue being stored at the Longford site.
Cr Downie said, if there was significant interest shown from the company, he would forward a motion to reverse the council's order.
"We know there are stockpiles, tyres on the West Coast from the mining industry," he said.
"If this recycling gets up there will be other tyres that'll come forth and we can get rid of them through the recycling process too.
"It's not only tyres that are a resource, there is a lot of industrial rubber.
"Industries with conveyor belts, they're all rubber - they're all a resource for this processing factory, and there could be other sources of material that could be used.
"The first step is that we've got to get the processing established to attract these other tyres."
