Nova Scotia’s Resource Recovery Fund Board, a non-profit organization which is responsible for solid-waste management in that province, has approved plans by Lafarge Canada Inc. to burn scrap tires as an alternative fuel in its cement plant in Brookfield, N.S. The plan is still subject to approval from the provincial government.

Nova Scotia RRFB selected the multinational cement firm to collect and process the more than 900,000 scrap tires generated in Nova Scotia each year. Ontario’s environment ministry recently approved a similar request from Lafarge to use tires as an alternative fuel source at its plant in Bath, near Kingston, Ontario. Ontario’s environmental review tribunal is considering the request of an opposition group for permission to appeal the government’s approval of the plan. Critics say the Ontario government granted approval to Lafarge without holding public hearings under the Environmental Protection Act, and also that it’s better to recycle tires than burn them, from an environmental lifecycle perspective.