4. Overview of Potential Impacts of Tyre Storage
As part of this investigation it was necessary to consider the potential environmental, financial, cultural and social impacts of tyre storage.
The most commonly reported potential environmental impacts associated with tyre storage were:
- compounds leaching from the tyres and contaminating soil, groundwater and surface water
- uncontrolled open air burning of tyres which releases pyrolytic oils and other compounds into the soil and groundwater as well as large plumes of black smoke and other contaminants into the air. In addition to this, water used to extinguish tyre fires is likely to become contaminated with tyre compounds
- tyre piles may become breeding grounds for insects, rodents and other animals. Mosquitoes, in particular, are a concern in tropical and subtropical countries because they are capable of transmitting diseases to humans.
The potential impacts of tyre leachate and uncontrolled open air burning of tyres are discussed further in Sections 5 and 6 of this report respectively.
The potential financial risks or areas of financial sensitivity associated with tyre storage identified by MWH, based on previous experience in solid waste management, include:
- risks associated with the landowner and storage facility owner
- costs of managing the facility, including meeting any regulatory requirements, insurances, etc
- costs associated with mitigating site contamination
- future value of end-of-life tyres
- cost of future disposal if a viable reprocessing option is not developed.
These issues as well as general factors that influence the level of financial risk are discussed further in Section 7 of this report.
The major potential social impact reported in the literature was the potential health risk posed by insects and vermin breeding in tyre piles. Few reports referred to the physical risk of tyres falling from the tyre pile onto employees and no reports reviewed referred to the visual impacts of tyre storage sites. No reports reviewed discussed the potential cultural impacts of tyre storage sites. Social and cultural impacts of tyre storage were not considered further in this investigation; however they should be taken into account when assessing the suitability of potential tyre storage sites.
