Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) has granted national tyre shredding company Tyrecycle a licence for its Somerton plant that allows it to store up to 80,000 car tyres on site.
EPA CEO Nial Finegan said the company was the just the second in Victoria, after Campbellfield company Oz Tyre Recyclers, to be granted a licence since new EPA tyre stockpile regulations came into force.
“The State Government put these regulations in place to ensure the Victorian public is better protected from the risk of tyre fires from unsafe stockpiles. The regulations require premises that store more than 40 tonnes or 5,000 waste tyres to obtain a licence from EPA,” Mr Finegan said.
Mr Finegan said Tyrecycle was now licensed to store up to 80,000 tyres at its Somerton premises.
“Tyrecycle noted in its application that this capacity was requested to deal with extraordinary conditions, such as those currently present at the Somerton site, where additional tyres have been accepted from the site of a tyre fire in Broadmeadows,” Mr Finegan said.
“The company where the fire occurred, Tyre Crumb, recently applied for an EPA tyre licence that was rejected as it could not demonstrate in its application that the storage of tyres at its premises –about 60,000 tyres – was not at risk of catching fire.”
Mr Finegan said further Victorian sites requiring a licence to store more than 5,000 tyres would now have to first gain an EPA works approval before applying.
“EPA’s works approval process is designed to ensure the best and most cost-effective environmental outcomes are achieved. Without an EPA works approval there is an increased risk of industrial projects causing pollution issues,” Mr Finegan.
Mr Finegan said reducing poorly managed waste tyre stockpiles was a key priority for EPA’s Illegal Dumping Strikeforce Program.
“As part of this program, EPA undertakes compliance inspections of waste tyre processing facilities and acts on reports of illegally dumped waste tyres. Tyre fires can cause significant pollution of the atmosphere and are incredibly difficult to put out, as was the case when the stockpile caught fire in Broadmeadows in January this year,” Mr Finegan said.
Mr Finegan said the number of used or waste tyres generated in Victoria each year was growing; about six million waste passenger car tyres were unaccounted for in Victoria in 2012-13, believed to be stockpiled or illegally dumped.
“These waste tyres can create environmental and public health risks for Victoria. Tyres inappropriately stored together in large volumes create a fire hazard,” Mr Finegan said.
To view EPA tyre regulations, please visit:
- http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/business-and-industry/guidelines/waste-guidance/storage-of-waste-tyres-in-victoria
- http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/our-work/setting-standards/waste-tyre-storage-ris