More than 10 million pounds of discarded tyres are sitting in landfills on all three islands, posing a significant fire risk, according to Department of Environmental Health Director Richard Simms.
With no recycling option on island, Simms has confirmed that the DEH is seeking private sector assistance, through a tender, to have the mounds of tyres removed and sent overseas for recycling.
“Based on the latest assessments, the number of tires at the George Town landfill is estimated to be around 4,800 US short tons, Cayman Brac 190 US short tons and Little Cayman 40 US short tons. These volumes are indeed among the highest amounts we have recorded,” Simms told the Cayman Compass via email following queries on the tender.
A US short ton is equivalent to 2,000 pounds.
Space running out
The DEH issued a request for quotations on government’s Bonfire procurement portal to have all the tyres from the George Town, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman landfill sites removed and recycled.
“The fire risk posed by these tires is significant, given their combustible nature,” Simms said, adding that “to avoid this we have created fire breaks between the tires to mitigate any potential fire hazards and have been monitoring them regularly”.
The request for quotations that the removal of the tyres from the Sister Islands will be the first priority.
“Even though the tonnage [is] smaller on the Brac, their risk of fire is much higher based on the space available there, hence the reason they have been set for prioritization,” Simms explained.
Fire hazard
The Cayman Islands community knows all too well the hazard stockpiled tyres pose after experiencing regular blazes over the years at the George Town landfill and a massive fire in 2013 that started in the scrap-metal pile and spread to the tyre mound.
In 2017, the then Progressives-led administration awarded a $1.25 million contract to Island Recycling and partner company Guernsey Recycling Group to shred and recycle the near half-a-million tyres that were at the George Town dump.
Previously, the shredded tyres were used by local contractors, but that was in a limited capacity.
In July 2018, government announced that 670,000 tyres had been shredded at the landfill and that project was considered complete. The shredding machine was sent back to the US.
The tyres that have been discarded since then, over the past six years, have been stored at the landfill with “limited processing”, Simms said.
“This tender represents a proactive approach to finally address the current accumulation on the site,” he said.
Opposition Leader and George Town North MP Joey Hew, in whose constituency the landfill falls, said the situation is a concern.
“The presence of accumulated tires at the landfill poses not only an environmental concern but also a direct threat to the safety and well-being of our community members,” he told the Compass via WhatsApp on Tuesday evening.
“The longer this issue persists, the greater the risk of potential fires, which could jeopardize the safety of our residents. It is imperative for the government to take proactive measures to address this pressing issue.”
Though Simms said the amount of tyres accumulated at the landfills is at its highest, he stressed the areas designated for the discarded materials are not at capacity.
“We still have some space to work with,” he said, adding that the situation is not critical but “we just don’t want to take the unnecessary risk”.
The decision to send the tyres overseas for recycling, Simms said, was simply because the processing solutions for them is not available locally.
“In addition, this approach helps to ensure that the tires are repurposed in compliance with environmental standards,” he added.
According to the tender documents, the DEH has said it has “no means of disposal or recycling equipment” to process the waste.
“The tyres hold little if any local value and require significant processing if they are to be re-used. Even if the tyres can be processed into useable materials; there are no secondary markets to sell or give these materials to in the Cayman Islands. The tyres cannot be landfilled in any form, as whole tyres they present challenges in burial and in all cases, they raise the risk and effects of a landfill fire,” the document stated.
The request for quotations is seeking to have a contract awarded by year’s end and all project works completed by 30 June 2025.
Meanwhile, Cayman is still awaiting a formal position from government on its next steps for the landfill after pulling the plug on the ReGen project that was meant to address the growing waste problem at the dump.
Simms said overall the George Town landfill has at least seven years worth of capacity.
The ReGen project, which was signed prior to the 2021 elections by the then Progressives-led government, was locked in nearly three years of negotiations under the PACT administration before it was finally terminated in July by the UPM government.
Last month, Troy Jacob, acting chief officer in the Ministry of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency, said the ministry was working with other government entities and “continues to lead the discussions with the Dart-led Consortium to exit the Integrated Solid Waste Management System project under the Project Agreement – also known as the ReGen project”.
He said that government will share more information on the project as it becomes available.
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So the shredding machine will need to be brought back, would it not be better to keep it here, as the number of used tyres dumped will be increasing daily in line with the daily increase in vehicles on the roads.
Has any consideration been given to exploring recycling options that would incorporate them into a building material/construction like roadway material?
Yeah, that’s an unprecedented number of tires for an island, not that I have an answer for you, but good luck with that problem.
If I remember correctly a number of years ago some company was willing to take the tires off island at no charge but the government wanted them to pay for the tires