LafargeHolcim has urged local residents near to its Ravena cement plant to defeat a new law that would prevent the cement company from burning tyres. Last week the company took out a full-page advertisement in the local paper to promote its cause.
A new proposal would prevent the burning of waste tyres. Drafted last summer, the new measure plans to set the strictest national limits on tyre burning and emissions of dioxins and furans, mercury, SOx and NOx.
The Ravena plant's current air pollution permit for its new kiln, built in 2017, allows the facility to burn natural gas, coal, petcoke or fuel oil. LafargeHolcim spokesman Jocelyn Gerst said: "Though we are permitted by [December] to use tyre derived fuels, building such a facility would take some time to put in place."
Last Autumn, the state of New York took out a three-year contract to collect and dispose of waste tyres across the state. The US$4.7m contract with Carver Construction Inc gave control of 600,000 waste tyres from 29 sites. These tyres were being shredded and shipped to the Seneca Meadows landfill site in Seneca County.
A 2006 state permit would have enabled Lafarge to burn up to 4.8m tyres annually in its old kiln, but the permit expired in 2018.
