A North Canterbury paddock in New Zealand keeps on witnessing unstable growth and decline of scrap tires that are being stockpiled at the Racecourse Rd site. The most recent data presented by Environment Canterbury (ECan) show that a great drop in scrap tires was recorded previous month, however, this decline could be mostly attributed to an earlier survey error.

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Photo by Waste Management New Zealand.

Two years ago, the New Zealand media outlet Stuff stated that the Ambeley residents were anxious over existing fire threat that the stockpiled scrap tires posed. At the time of that publication, the pile with accumulated tires included some 600,000 tires. And the public concerns had been justified as in February last year part of that tire accumulation started burning creating toxic black smoke that had been observed several kilometers away from the fire area.

However, North Canterbury zone delivery manager Andrew Arps thwarted reports that the pile with tires was that big and included 600,000 of units. He also noted, last week ECan established that about 200,000 tires were kept at the site.

Last April, an Environment Court order demanded from the business behind the waste tires pile, Jamison Investments and Tyre Recycling Services New Zealand, to conduct the site clearance by the end of 2018. By December, the site still had around 450,000 tires, according to ECan’s report, but the survey had been later reviewed. Eventually, it found that the actual number of the remaining waste tires was not over 160,000. Currently, ECan is seeking collaboration with the site’s owner as the court order was unsuccessful in forcing the business that had been leasing the land to fulfill its responsibilities.

Article by Stuff.