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WnrMY MRE PRESS, WEDNEISDAY, FEBRUARY 21,1, PAGE07 PAGE SEVEN BURNING RUBEER Aren't yeu glad that you don't live in Hagersville? But then, considering that Canadians discard some 25 million tires every year and that the Hagersville dump contained only (estimated) 14 million after years of operation, there are obviously a lot more dumps around which may be just as big a hazardor worse. How many tires are stored in Durham Regien? Where are they and what kind of security is there? (It is estimated that there are six bilion tires in- dumps like Hagersville in N . America.) The Great Tire Fire of 1990 lias only burnt for a week, but already they are predicting that it may burn for 6 months to- a year. Seventeen hundered people have been evacuated from their homes already - how many more? And guesa who's going to have to pay for it ail? The owner has to take most of the blarne, but a share of the responsibility must lie with governnient bureaucracy. In' fairneas, the dump at Hagersville had been ordered te dlean up some three years ago but the!order was appealed.' It took a couple of similar Ëres in the United States te alert governments to the risks of such dumps. Old tires are one of the nxost formidible and hazardous waste probleme we face, and yet very little is being done to correct it. About six weeks ago I cipped out an article from the Globe as material for-a future column on waste. I also considered using it in a columu te be entitled 'bureaucrats who should be fired." The low-profle article (page 12, January 2) was about tires, and the Ministry of the Environment, specifically a proposai by St. Mary's Cernent'Co. in St. Mary's, Ont. (50 km. E. of Kitchener and orily about a hundred km. from the Hagersville dump) te use ten thousand tons of those old tires a year as fuel. The Ministry of the Environment wouldn't even let them run a 10-day test at their own eypense even though the technology has been prcven both here and in the States. Oue mnristry spokesman was reported te, have said that [using them as fuel] wasW4 within the Ministryls long term goals. Thatls the bureaucrat who should be fired. Cernent kilns are peculiarly suited for burniug a wide range of toxic wastes. The manufacture of cernent requires the exposure of powdered limestene te longl sustained temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees - a temperati4e at which almost ail wastes, even PCB's, are destroyed. A government-fiuanoed test doue bock in 1914 - ixteen years ago - at St. Lawrence Cernent in Mississauga showed that cernent kilns coidd destroy PCB'a with 99.99 per cent I (ùcTr;v contiuued to grow, should also be fired. There is an obvious synergy cf technologies here that is just waiting te be exploited, but the bureaucracy caret see it. Ontario bas spent more than a decade and millions of dollars studying potential sites for a central texic waste disposai facility while there are a]ready several cernent ilns operating i the province. They have also spent a srnall fortune studying dedicated waste incineraters while Sitting on a study which seema te, be a major part of the solution. The tires that are burning in Hageroville are reportedly (though few tests have yet been doue) generating dioxins, furans, heavy metal contaminants and a' variety cf carcinogenic hydrocarbons. Burniug rubber is net nice stuif. Yet cernent kilns can use shredded used tires as a fuel in place cf ceai, and are already doing so in the United States and West Germany among others. What littie pollution resuits is ne more than there would be fi-cm the ceai. The propsai by St. Mry's cernent would have used ten thousand tons cf old tires per year or approximately a million tires. At that rate the pile at Hagersviile' would stii have taken fourteen years te, use up even if no more were added. To keep up with the number of used tires we!re producing in this country would take twenty-five ilns the size cf the St. Mary's plant ail burning rubber. Actually, in spite of the huge dunipa that have accumulated, the tire industry bas oeeof the better records as a recycler. Only about 70% cf used tires end up in dumps - moot. cf the rest get retreaded and reused. The rubber industry has develeped additional products that could be made frem recycled tires but until goveruiments provide some incentives, rnarkets are un]ikely te develop. Recydl[ing tires inte other products will neyer be viable until dumps like the ene in Hageraville become a far more ep ve option. The tire industry, in f'act, makes ir teresting study 4 the three Irs of waste reduction. The iuy is reducing its inherent waste by produing tires that a longer, and it là practising reuse in the form cf retreads. The recycle pari, thoughi l largely missing because cf goverijent inertia. Perhaps ail those billowing clouds of l4lack acrid srnok? will indeed have a silver lining in the ferm cof icking the igovernment off its backside and forcing them to, deal with an imm ense problema which lias been incr*easln for yearz :nd whose solution *they have ignord for juat as long. a m TU RANSKY'S GROCERY STORE, BROCK STREET NORTI, 1928 Katherine Turanalcy stands in front of the store she opened acrosa from the Royal Hotel in 1924. Taransky' Grocery is the oldest family-owned business i downtown Whitby, having t been in operation for 66 years.t WhitIy Arhivm photo 10 YEAIRS AGO from the Wednesday, February 20, 1980 edition of the WHITDY FREE PRESS * Progressive Conservative Scott Fenneil was re-elected for Ontario Riding in the Feb. 18 federal election. e Ie old parisoh hall at AUl Saints' Anglican Church, built in 1870, rnay be dernolished. e A lawyer for the Town of Whithy says Broàkln development wiil benefit the developers more thaxi the town. e A new Manning Act wiIl be bad for schools says Whitby Trustee David Sims. 2i; TZARSAGO from the Thursdy, February 18, 1965 edition of the WITBY WZEKLY NEWS * Whitby Lions Club is now the second largest club in its district. e Town Council bas asked the provincial governrnent to fund 50 low rentaI housing units in Whitby. e Town Council bas approved a civic centre in the old Cuuat House at Whitby's 1967 Centennial project e Mis. John Davies is Regent cf the Houee of Windsor Chapter of the IODE. IL25 YZARS AGO from the Thursday, February 16,11865 edition cf the WHrIymCHRONJCIE e Sheriff Nelson G. Reynolds is pIresident cf the St. PatricWes society of Ontario County which nieets at the Roiyal Hotel. e Catan George H. Dartnell's company of volunteer militia will be inspected by Major Pennothe Royal Artilleiy. e The Ontario County Coundil lsa adertising tenders for printing of its minutes, repor ta and by-laws. .i a Druggit James Bre is advertioïng glycerine cream as a remedy for ail sin diseases, chapedhands and lips.