A plan to clear a stockpile of tyres at Longford using a shredder won’t produce a saleable product, critics of the proposal say.
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Tyre Recycle Tasmania wants to dispose of tyres at the site by December 2020 through turning them into tyre chips.
Robbie Kelman, executive officer of the Australian Tyre Recyclers Association, said the plan put Northern Midlands Council in an “unenviable position” because it required the Longford site to receive more tyres beyond a cut-off date set previously at December 2016.
It was unclear in the plan whether the tyre chips would be processed further so they were usable, he said.
Tyre Recycle Tasmania’s Tim Chugg said that further processing of the tyre chips was covered in a separate development application to be lodged.
“This is just the first step,” he said.
“It’s this extreme negativity that I’ve been battling for four years now.
“It’s very annoying when you encounter such negativity from people who are meant to be fostering and developing such activities.”
He said he wanted to solve the state’s tyre disposal problem and that he was confident the plan, to be decided by Northern Midlands Council, would work.
Tyrecycle chief executive Jim Fairweather, whose company has a partnership with Barwicks tyre recycling facility in Bridgewater, said the new plan for the tyres at Longford would require the tyre chips to be sent to landfill, or relied on another business to reprocess them.
“Economically the proposal can’t stack up,” he said.
Mr Fairweather said the plan would not produce a saleable product, while the Tasmanian Conservation Trust’s Peter McGlone said it didn’t guarantee reducing the stockpile.
Mr Chugg said the stockpile numbered 800,000 tyres, while an environmental report received by the Environment Protection Agency Tasmania indicated they number more than one million.
Mayor David Downie on Wednesday said he welcomed Mr Chugg’s application, but wanted to see it before deciding his vote.