Filenews 25 June 2022 - by Angelos Nicolaou
The cry of despair of the tyre crews was conveyed through the parliamentary Committee on the Environment, which met in extraordinary session yesterday after the fire in the management areas of Enerco, representatives of the systems (RTM and E4C) that have an operating license for the collection of waste tyres and their delivery to the Vasilikos Cement Factory for management.
Representatives of the two systems said they are in despair since they constantly receive phones about complaints from garages about not collecting the tyres that are at the end of their lives. As they explained, after the devastating fire of June 11, Enerco closed the door to them and no longer picks them up. Representatives of the two systems are worried since several crews stack the tyres on the sidewalks, outside their shops, located in apartment buildings and wonder who will take responsibility in the event of an accident. After the fire, they pointed out, there is no other licensed space to transport them to, while Enerco does not pick up tyres since it is unable to store them.
As they mentioned, every day 40 tons of tires are produced, so today 400 tons of tyres are on sidewalks in cities, corresponding to 40,000 tyres. Before the appeal to Vassiliko Cement Works to pick up the tyres, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the company Antonis Antoniou expressed the intention to ask the Department of Environment to temporarily license another space that is also located in the area of the Kalavasos quarry, so that it can start picking up again.
He noted that the consequence of the fire was to inform all partners that the receipts of waste tyres were stopped. He added that as a result of the fire the burning piles were coated with 40,000 tons of soil. Of the 16,000 tons that existed in the licensed area on the day of the incident, 8,500 tons of tyres were covered with soil, of which it is estimated that 4,000 tons were burned, while 4,500 tons remain buried under the soil. He said it will take a few years until the tyres that are covered with soil are fed as raw material for cement production.
He noted that the company has a license to store 17,000 tons of old tyres. The cause of the fire, Mr. Antoniou said, is the ignition through the cutting chamber of the shredder unit. He pointed out that the flame was transferred from the exhaust tape of the shredder to the pile and with the strong winds prevailing it was transferred to adjacent piles, without the possibility of a reaction from the staff. On the face of it, he added, the ignition was probably caused by a rim found during the investigation of the incident in the cutting chamber of the shredder. At the beginning of July, a technician of the Finnish company of the manufacturer is expected in Cyprus for damage assessment.
