Resent mail....
Yacine Khelladi (yacine@funredes.org)
Thu, 20 Jun 1996 12:50:35 -0400
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> /** reg.carib: 214.0 **/
> ** Topic: IPS: CARIBBEAN-ENVIRONMENT: Tyres, Tyres Everywhere ... **
> ** Written 4:28 PM Jun 7, 1996 by newsdesk in cdp:reg.carib **
> Copyright 1996 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
> Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
>
> *** 04-Jun-96 ***
>
> Title: CARIBBEAN-ENVIRONMENT: Tyres, Tyres Everywhere ...
>
> by Wesley Gibbings
>
> PORT OF SPAIN, Jun 4 (IPS) - The Caribbean is fast becoming a dumping
> ground for defective motor vehicle tyres from North America and
> Standards authorities and environmentalists say the effect is
> becoming obvious at dumpsites throughout the region.
>
> These tyres are sold at a fraction of the price of a new one --
> sometimes up to half the cost -- and outwardly they appear to be in
> top shape, but say the experts, this is one time when looks are
> definitely deceiving.
>
> In Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, governments have insisted on
> the certification of foreign used tyres either from the supplier or
> the importer, but according to Loyce Constant who heads the
> implementation unit of Trinidad and Tobago's Bureau of Standards that
> approach has done little to stem the problem.
>
> In Guyana the situation is more acute where recent trade
> liberalisation and the ready availability of foreign currency have
> combined to intensify the flow of what are sometimes manufacturers'
> rejects into the country.
>
> The government of Trinidad and Tobago has now adopted an approach
> which is creating problems for another sector of the society.
>
> Once these tyres are identified by the Bureau of Standards they
> are seized, slashed and accompanied under high security to one of the
> main dumpsites.
>
> Officials at the Bureau say some 100,000 imported used tyres have
> been rejected by that body over the last two and one half years and
> which have been carted off to the country's three main dumpsites.
>
> However the solid waste company is insisting the tyre importers
> pay the extra charge of burying the tyres.
>
> "We have to do it," says Michael Pope, manager of the most modern
> landfill site in Trinidad and Tobago, the Forress Park Landfill,
> "They (tyres) are a very difficult thing to manage on a landfill site
> ... You can't leave them on the surface. You have to bury them. But
> who is going to stand the cost of this, the tyre man who has wasted
> his money to bring the tyres into the country?"
>
> "What I am really worried about is where those tyres end up when I
> turn them away from here," says Pope.
>
> But observers say these tyres usually end up in vacant lots in the
> countryside where they serve as mosquito-breeding receptacles or they
> may find their way into any number of water courses causing flooding
> in low-lying areas.
>
> "If you imagine that in one truck-load alone you could get about
> 300 to 400 tyres and I don't take them here then you will know what I
> am talking about," says Pope.
>
> "The importation of these used tyres is a serious problem for this
> country (Trinidad and Tobago). It is definitely a problem for us at
> the landfills and it is a health hazard for the country."
>
> Officials at Trinidad and Tobago's Bureau of Standards estimate
> that more than 554,000 used tyres entered that country between 1993
> and 1995.
>
> A new tyre in Trinidad and Tobago cost between 45 and 75 U.S.
> dollars. A foreign used tyre will cost between 20 and 40 dollars.
>
> The relatively short lifespan of used tyres also means that even
> those which escape the Bureau's attention end up in the dumps twice
> as fast as new tyres. A foreign used tyre lasts between six and nine
> months.
>
> So vexing has been the problem of Trinidad and Tobago's foreign
> used tyre trade that traditional importers of new tyres have formed
> themselves into an association which has been lobbying government to
> do something about it.
>
> "It (the used tyre business) is a plague in many respects," a
> statement from the New Tyre Dealers Association said in response to
> inquiries from IPS. "There is the quality problem, the safety
> problem and the waste problem."
>
> So, says one official, Caribbean countries are importing the waste
> products of other countries and thereby producing more pollution and
> leading to the overburdening of waste disposal facilities that will
> have an adverse impact on the environment. (end/ips/en/wg/cb/96)
>
>
> Origin: Kingston/CARIBBEAN-ENVIRONMENT/
> ----
>
> [c] 1996, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
> All rights reserved
>
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>
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