Tire wagons to leave Latvia soon

  • 2000-08-17
  • Nick Coleman
RIGA - A consignment of used tires abandoned in Latvia by a Norwegian company two years ago is soon to be removed from the country, an official said. But the flap over them has environmentalists questioning the way Latvia deals with its own used tires.

The 1,500-ton load of tires will be removed soon.

"I hope this month," said Rolands Bebris, director of the Environmental Protection Department. "All the necessary agreements have been signed."

The tires have been sitting in Riga and Rezekne railway stations since being turned back at Latvia's border with Russia, said Yuri Shilakin, assistant marketing director at Latvijas Dzelzcels's Freight Department. Having failed to arrange the necessary transit and destination permits, the Norwegian owners went bankrupt.

Norway has agreed to pay for the tires' removal, said Shilakin.

The tires will be shipped to Sweden or Finland to be recycled or used for energy generation, said Eric Wormstrand, director of the Norwegian Resource Center for Waste Management and Recycling, which has been contracted to dispose of them.

Burning of tires to produce energy can damage the environment, said Professor Thomas Theis, director of the Center for Environmental Management at Clarkson University. But, "Sweden and Finland have some of the most stringent environmental standards in the world, so I am sure these issues have been addressed," he said.

Wormstrand said the Finnish and Swedish power plants meet EU environmental standards.

Meanwhile, Latvian environmentalists are concerned about tire burning in their own country.

Cement manufacturer Broceni, part of the British-based RMC group, is one of two companies to which the state last month awarded new tire disposal contracts. Its plant at Saldus, in the Kurzeme region, will therefore continue to be powered by tire burning, said Janis Avotins, director of the state Bureau for Environmental Impact Assessment.

"Better than in America," is how technical director Janis Klavins describes Broceni's tire-burning equipment. He cites recent inspections by outside consultants and claims that the smoke from the burning "contains no harmful substances apart from carbon dioxide, and is better than smoke from oil."

But Dr. Imants Matiss of the Certification Center of the Latvian Academy of Science would like the academy to examine the company's current burning process, if funding can be made available.

"It (an audit) would be very interesting. Broceni has a bad record," he said.

Internationally, not all experts oppose disposal of tires by burning.

"This (tire-burning) is one of the only cases where I personally support incineration," said Tom Kacandes, formerly of New York state's Office of Recycling Market Development.

Nonetheless, Janis Ulme, of the Environmental Protection Club of Latvia, is distrustful of Broceni.

"They can argue they have very high technology, but they are not clean in other ways," he said.

The award of the second tire disposal contract to Latvian company Kommitehs may cheer up environmentalists. By the beginning of 2001, Kommitehs will start converting tires into rubber granules and powder at its plant in Jelgava, said chairman Gunars Vaskis. The company plans to process 10,000 to 11,000 tons of tires per year. The powder and granules have many uses, from insulation to road building, Vaskis said.

Broceni and Kommitehs will both receive state subsidies "so they can get a little profit," said Avotins.

Lack of public understanding is central to Latvia's environmental problems, believes Ulme.

"There is no understanding of the environment in society," he said.