Tire Recycling in Vaal Community

By Lebuhang Mokoena

A pile of tires stored in the Enrec yard.

Tires become totally unusable once they are torn and damaged. They then end up in taking up the space in our landfills which affects the environment and also results in climate change. They also become the home ground for mosquitoes and rodents which are responsible for carrying many diseases. One major risk associated with disposal of tires is pollution of underground water. Many people burn their tires which releases some toxic chemicals into the atmosphere which may affect the health of the people.

You must have seen street kids playing with the tires making another perfect recipe for disaster. The best way to reduce the filling of tires in the landfills is to become involved in tire recycling. One of the major issue in tire recycling is the durability of tires as they are very hard to break down and therefore are seen lying in open space in large heaps. Various recycling methods exist for tire recycling. Tires are being used by number of companies by replacing fuels like wood, coal and natural gas which are consumed in utility boilers. Tires are also being used as fuel at wood and paper mills throughout the nation. Another process involves heating up the tire in a reactor unit under high temperature without oxygen.

MID VAAL WELCOMES YOU

This is what Enrec want to do in the Vaal, the company is situated in the industrial area next to Henly onklep in the Mid Vaal municypality,Midvaal Local Municipality is an administrative area in the Sedibeng District of Gauteng in South Africa. The name due to its geographical location: Midvaal lies halfway between Johannesburg/East Rand and the Vaal/Vereeniging area. the plant will only be requid to flear on emegency and only for about 30min and again if they have too much gas because we cant store all gas the pumpwe are using is too small, since we are not oprating at the moment we cant affod to buy a biger pump. .carbondyoxide ,steel,methane,oil can be found when flaring Once the vapor is formed it is sent to water cooled unit where it is condenses into a liquid fuel forming diesel and other fuel oils.

The company has already applied for a permit under section 24G, and they have started with public participation in April waiting for response,we where not suppose to take pictures but they will be included in the environmental impact assessment report. heat of tires without oxygen(meaning there is no burning happening)this is where it differ form incinerator, Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials.the plant only uses 15kw of power and when the process goes on it creates its own power,no gas escape the from the system everything created during the process is taken back in the system. It only use 10 liters of water per cycle and it is taken to purification plant, effluent water is not disposed there is a water company that collect water to be purified said by the owner of the company “we take a tire that cause a problem and we break it down and it is being used again to save oil and other products that are used in it” Now today with almost every tire can be recycled there is no reason of piling of the tires building up at landfills sites.