PPC has signed an agreement to source waste tyres from the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa) for use at its De Hoek cement factory, South Africa.

The country’s largest cement producer is also investigating the possibility of using waste tyres in some of its other plants, Azola Lowan, the executive for investor relations and strategy, told the Cape Times.

Lowan said the use of the waste tyres in the kilns at the De Hoek factory would be introduced from the middle of next year and indications were that the tyres could replace 10 per cent of its coal usage.

She added that this was one of several environmental and alternative energy initiatives being undertaken by PPC. PPC had already commissioned the use of carbonaceous spent pot liner, waste material from the aluminium industry, at its Dwaalboom cement factory in Limpopo.

On the alternative energy front, PPC had an agreement with Innowind, which was constructing a 60MW wind farm in the Eastern Cape to provide electricity to their Grassridge quarry.

Over the past fiscal, PPC concluded a number of environmental projects including the upgrading of the bag house filter at De Hoek kiln 5, leading to dust emissions falling to below 10mg/Nm3 and significant savings in water consumption. At the Slurry operations, air-quality upgrades on finishing mill 1 and 2 were completed to comply with environmental legislation to be introduced in 2020.