Kozhikode: With the police intensifying checks on the city’s scrap vendors who stock used tyres in their complexes and illegally disposing them of, city residents, workshops and tyre retreading units are feeling the heat without an alternative solution. Since the city corporation, waste management authorities and scrap vendors have stopped accepting such tyres from any source, the common ma-n is in a dilemma as to what to do with them.
According to environmental experts in the city, one hazard that may have been overlooked, however, is the fact that scrap tyres are a threat not only to the environment but also to public health.
“Temptation of unlawful disposal, incidents of roadside dumping of old tyres and burning them for fuel have become very rampant ,” said Feroke Sayed, pollution control board se-nior engineer. “We have got reports of public disposal of tyres,” he added.
Recently, scrap units at Athanikal and also Vellayil were fined Rs 25,000 each for illegally dumping or storing used tyres in their compounds. “We were told by the officials that without a perfect mechanism to dispose of or recycle such products, it is unlawful to store these tyres,” said Vinaya Kumar, owner of a scrap unit.
“Disposing of old tyres legally as per a typical waste management agreement is very expensive. We used to take these tyres and send them to the recycling units outside the state but, now, even they have stopped accepting them, which leads to piling up of tyres in our store,” he added.
A city resident, P. Ganghadharan, who has a total of eight old tyres in his house, is trying all means out to dispose them of. “Twice when I took them to the scrap units here, they were rejected,” he said. “Even Kudumbashree and corporation workers have refused to take them, hence I had to dump them in my compound itself,” he added.
