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Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump

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6 years 7 months ago #186164 by Roderick Smith
Roderick.
August 6 2017 Internet marketing company in Panama owns a dump of 9 million
tyres in Victoria.
A shadowy offshore internet marketing company based in the tax haven of
Panama now has control of a toxic dump of 9 million used tyres considered a
huge fire risk in the state's west.
The notorious Stawell tyre stockpile, one of the world's biggest, has
largely sat dormant for nearly a decade, despite major environmental
concerns and repeated orders for it to be cleaned up.
An aerial shot from 2014 of the Stawell tyre dump, which holds around 9
million tyres. Photo: Boomerang Alliance .
Anger in the community has reached boiling point, as repeated inaction
finally led the Environment Protection Authority last week to declare it
would take charge of the dump unless the fire danger was reduced. If fully
ignited, it could burn for months.
The previous owner had promised residents that it would rid the country town
of the dangerous mass of rubber using a controversial recycling process
known as pyrolysis, which involves breaking down the tyres at high
temperatures.
The Stawell tyre stockpile has sat dormant for almost 10 years. Photo:
Boomerang Alliance .
However that plan has not reached fruition and with the threat of action
looming, Fairfax Media can reveal that ownership of the site has been
transferred in recent months to an overseas company known as "Internet
Marketing Solutions Corp".
From Stawell to Panama. A title search shows the transfer of the Saleyards
Road property by the previous owner Used Tyre Recycling Corporation was
completed on June 8.
No ACN or Australian address is listed for Internet Marketing Solutions Corp
on the land title. The company is based in the central American country of
Panama.
Panama company records show Internet Marketing Solutions Corp was registered
in 2010 as a "sociedad anonima" or anonymous society, a form of private
corporation which protects the identity of shareholders.
The skyline of Panama City in Panama. Photo: Susana Gonzalez
Directors listed on the company's documents are linked to hundreds of other
entities in Panama.
The sole director of the Used Tyre Recycling Corporation, Matthew Starr,
said he was not connected with Internet Marketing Solutions Corp in any way
and had completed the deal in New York City earlier this year.
Panama company records for Internet Marketing Solutions Corp.
Internet Marketing Solutions Corp bought the dump because they wanted to
focus on developing rubber-based products, he said.
"I have never been to Panama and can't speak or understand any Spanish," he
said.
The Stawell tyre stockpile is one of the world's largest. Photo: Marcus
Marrow
It appears no money changed hands. On the land title, the property was
transferred as a "desire to make a gift".
Dr Starr said the deal was backended, with an agreement that his company
would recycle Internet Marketing Solutions Corp's tyres at a plant still
planned for a neighbouring property.
'They don't care'. Stawell resident Allan Cooper, 65, said the community
had been worried about the tyre stockpile for at least 10 years, after the
site's then-owner Motorway went bust in 2008.
He lives on Longfield Street, about one kilometre away from the dump, and
had major concerns about the possibility of the town being blanketed with
toxic smoke if it were to go up in flames.
"If it started the whole town would be polluted with smoke," he said.
"There's no way known you could get everybody out that quickly and it won't
take long to start up once it goes."
Mr Cooper said the town was sick of the buckpassing that had taken place in
recent years between the owners, the EPA, local council and state
government, and just wanted something done.
"If it was in Melton, closer to Melbourne, they'd be doing something about,"
he said. "They would have that much money poking at it. But they don't
care."
Environmental groups have previously described the dump as a "Hazelwood
waiting to happen". The CFA has assessed the site as a "very high fire"
risk, with the potential for catastrophic consequences for the town of
Stawell.
Nine million tyres. Environmental group Boomerang Alliance, which has
advocated for stricter controls on tyre dumping, estimated there were 9
million tyres in the stockpile.
"Every year it stays there, the greater the chance of a massive fire," said
Boomerang Alliance director Jeff Angel.
Lax regulation had allowed the stockpile to grow, he said, as unscrupulous
collectors undercut legitimate recyclers with lower rates and then dumped
the tyres without fear of reprisal.
He said the problem was improving as state governments tightened their laws,
while major tyre brands also had begun sending their used tyres to genuine
recyclers.
"However, we've got this enormous legacy problem at Stawell," he said.
EPA chief executive Nial Finegan said there was a long history with Used
Tyre Recycling Corporation trying to get them to comply with various
notices.
The EPA would seek to recover costs from the owners if it had to take
control of the dump and reduce the risk, he said. The current owners have
until Wednesday to explain why the EPA shouldn't take charge.
"If the Environment Protection Authority is stepping in there is a real risk
to the community," he said.
Dr Starr said his company had stopped owning the dump on March 30, before
EPA had slapped the tyre yard with three statutory demands.
Any delays were caused by documentation having to be translated between
Spanish and English and then approved, he said.
The company had previously tried to get a permit for a pyrolysis tyre
recycling plant but claimed to be slowed down by red tape.
Dr Starr said the company had spent large amounts of money and had improved
the site substantially since taking over in 2015.
"It appears that EPA is overreacting at Stawell given the recent paper
recycling dump fire in Coolaroo that took weeks to put out," he said.
< www.theage.com.au/victoria/internet-mark...n-panama-owns-a-dump
-of-9-million-tyres-in-victoria-20170803-gxonim.html>
Inside the EPA's mammoth effort to remove Stawell's toxic tyre mountain.
August 17 2017 Stawell Times News
Victoria's Environmental Protection Authority is tackling the removal of a toxic mountain of tyres from a site in western Victoria like a military operation.
A week after taking control of the Stawell Tyre Yard, which poses a potentially "catastrophic" fire risk, the agency has described the mammoth clean-up process as a marathon rather than a sprint.
Excavators chip away at the stockpile at Stawell Tyre Yard. Photo: Rex Martinich The site on the western side of Stawell holds an estimated nine million tyres.
For the first time in its history, the EPA has used specific clauses in legislation to take full control of a site after the deadline for the owners to act on fire hazard notifications expired.
"EPA used the powers under section 55 and 62 of the Environmental Protection Act to access and take control of the site in order to clean up and reduce the very high fire risk that was imposed on the community," Danny Childs, the agency's project manager at the site, said.
"If the tyres were to go up in flames, it would have huge impacts on society, the economy and the environment," he said.
"It would be catastrophic.
"This has been an unacceptable risk to the Stawell community for far too long now, and that's part of the reason the EPA has taken action."
EPA's Danny Childs, who is overseeing the clean-up, says it could take up to 18 weeks. Photo: Rex Martinich .
The tyre yard has sat mostly idle for the past decade, with increasing numbers of Stawell residents objecting to the site.
The saga took a bizarre turn this month when Fairfax Media revealed that the site's owner, Used Tyre Recycling Corporation, had 'gifted' the property to a mysterious company registered in Panama, which then tried and failed to get a Supreme Court injunction against the EPA.
The tyres will be pressure-cleaned and sorted before they are shredded and recycled. Photo: Rex Martinich Mr Childs estimated that it would take another 12 to 18 weeks to complete the project. "We're currently working Monday to Saturday ... from 6.45am to 6pm," he said.
"It really depends on the weather, what we find in the stockpile itself, and on how quickly we can process them. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon."
The site has two new large polyethylene tanks to hold water for the multiple firefighting trucks that have been placed on standby.
New drainage channels are being built and an erosion management plan will be put in place for the bare ground left behind when the tyres are removed.
Portable pumps are being used continuously at the site to remove water that has built up underneath the tyre piles.
Security guards now patrol temporary fences and the EPA has set up a time-lapse camera to document the process.
One EPA worker described the seized tyre yard as a miniature army base, with temporary offices shipped to the site.
"At this stage the project is progressing well and as planned," Mr Childs said. "We have removed 550 tonnes of tyres as of Tuesday.
"They have been taken to Somerton in Melbourne to be processed by Tyrecycle."
Tyrecycle's plant can process 10.5 million tyres per year. Between 100 to 150 tonnes of tyres from Stawell have been shredded and processed so far.
"The tyres are very dirty," he said. "When the tyres arrive in Somerton, they are having to be manually cleaned using high-pressure water and sorted into passenger tyres versus truck tyres."
Different types of tyres will go through their own recycling processes.
"The truck tyres will be used for road construction, putting them in the asphalting component, for running tracks and playgrounds, and also for tiling adhesive to add flexibility to grout.
"The car tyres are shredded and used as tyre-derived fuel and the fuel is used in things like power plants or kilns."
Related Articles:
Cardboard box and recycling giant Visy launches lawsuit against its workers .
'Roundabout of death' gets $100,000 to plan a safety upgrade .
Tyre mountain's owners lose bid to stop clear-up 'We've got this enormous problem at Stawell'
< www.theage.com.au/victoria/inside-the-ep...20170817-gxy8cl.html >

Somerton’s Tyrecycle begins receiving truckloads of tyres from the Stawell stockpile.
Hume Leader August 22, 2017.
SOMERTON will soon be home to up to nine million tyres moved from a dumping ground in western Victoria, sparking fears of another fire fiasco in Hume.
Tyrecycle began receiving truckloads of tyres last week from the Stawell stockpile, deemed a major health hazard to residents if it catches fire and releases toxic chemicals.
It is estimated that eight to 10 trucks filled with tyres will leave the site six days a week and deliver to Encore Ave, Somerton, for shredding.
The works are expected to take at least four months.
But the Environment Protection Authority has confirmed the tyre removal process, transportation and recycling will be audited.
Trucks being loaded with tyres from the Stawell stockpile headed for Somerton.
It comes a month after a toxic fire at a recycling factory in Coolaroo burned for 11 days.
More than 100 homes had to be evacuated after plumes of thick black smoke from SKM Recycling affected the area.
Terminate Tulla Toxic Dump Action Group president Kaylene Wilson, who works near Tyrecycle, said residents and businesses were petrified of enduring another fire disaster.
Kaylene Wilson says people living in the area are terrified of another major fire breaking out. Picture: Supplied
“Everybody is really on edge,” she said.
“What we don’t want is millions of tyres instead being stockpiled here.
“We are almost coming into the fire season and we are going to have tyres that are soiled and have sat out in a paddock for years.
“I don’t see how Tyrecycle has the room to be storing what could be 9 million tyres unless they are shredded as they come in the door.”
Ms Wilson said given how the EPA had handled past incidents she didn’t have much faith in them to oversee the process.
EPA chief executive Nial Finegan said there was up to a million tyres stockpiled at the Stawell premises but the volume below ground level won’t be known until those on the surface were removed.
The number of tyres estimated at the dump range from one million to nine million.
The Stawell tyre stockpile. The tyres will be moved to Somerton.
Mr Finegan said the authority was forced to exercise its powers to secure and clean up the site because it had concerns for the safety and welfare of surrounding communities and the environment.
He said while tyres were not easy to ignite, once alight, extinguishing them could be very difficult.
Tyrecycle chief executive Jim Fairweather said the company received 13.5 million tyres annually with the majority of those processed within 24 hours of reaching one of its five facilities.
Tyrecycle in Somerton, with bags of tyres in the background. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui
Mr Fairweather said the Somerton plant, which is licensed to have 650 tonnes of waste tyres on the premises at any given time, had the capacity to take on the Stawell job.
Tyrecycle had a strict auditing process and will work closely with the EPA to ensure all protocols are met, he said.
RECYCLING PLANT A BURNING ISSUE FOR MFB.
< www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/north-west/s...5642dd26a236aa0d10cf >

170822Tu-MelbourneHeraldSun-tyres.jpg


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6 years 7 months ago #186168 by Mairjimmy
Replied by Mairjimmy on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
There is a big stack of old tyres at Numurkah Vic maybe 8 acres (3 hectares) waiting for some fool to light up

Time to get up andd get going.......todays bad decisions aren't going to make themselves!!!

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6 years 5 months ago - 6 years 5 months ago #187978 by Roderick Smith
Melbourne Express: Friday, October 13, 2017.
The environmental watchdog says it will take the owners of a huge tyre dump in the state's west to court to recover almost $6 million spent on the tyring work eliminating the massive fire hazard, Tom Cowie reports.
Before. Photo: EPA
After Photo: EPA
The last tyres were finally removed from the notorious Stawell dump this week, two months after the Environmental Protection Authority took control of the site after repeated failures by the owners to clean it up.
I wonder if the EPA felt let down that they had to do the clean-up. Not many people would be too pumped at the prospect at clearing a tyre yard.
< www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbourne-exp...20171012-gyzbwq.html >


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  • Swishy
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  • If U don't like my Driving .... well then get off the footpath ...... LOL
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6 years 5 months ago #187983 by Swishy
Replied by Swishy on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
OK
the Q:?
on everybodies lips
where did the tyres goto n how did they dispose of m

cya

§

OF ALL THE THINGS EYE MISS ................. EYE MISS MY MIND THE MOST

There's more WORTH in KENWORTH

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6 years 5 months ago #187985 by JOHN.K.
Replied by JOHN.K. on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
Tyres are put through a shredder,an expensive process due to the masses of HT steel wire in them.Before tyres were filled with wire,there were recyclers making things like woven mats,containers ,even shoes. The carcases were actually worth something.Then the makers started filling them full of wire,and they became problem waste.If the govt banned all steel wire in tyres,the problem would be solved overnight.......Most states have laws requiring the use of shredded tryes in roadbase and hotmix bitumen.But like everything else at corporate level,its easy to get exemptions if you give to the right people or party.

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6 years 5 months ago #187988 by JOHN.K.
Replied by JOHN.K. on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
A bit OT,but could be a lot more fires in recyclers.The Chinese Govt has banned the import of 36 odd categories of recycled material,stating ..We will no longer accept putrid,stinking,toxic garbage from the US and elsewhere.They can handle their own waste.Banned are most types of recycled materials from garbage, polluted with food or animal waste.Only clean recyclables directly from mnufacturing industries will be allowed.Used tyre imports are also banned. Heavy scrap metals are still allowed.A lot of recycled domestic material from Australia has also been shipped to China to avoid state waste and landfill levies.Recycling of garbage will now become a sort of "work for the dole",as recycled material will go to landfill anyway.

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6 years 5 months ago #187995 by Bobsboy
Replied by Bobsboy on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
Follow the money

Mucking about on the edge

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6 years 5 months ago #188009 by Zuffen
Replied by Zuffen on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
Tyres have had steel in them for the last 50 years.

Michelin made the first radials and they used steel reinforcement.

Only the lower quality Nylon reinforced tyres don't have steel (except for the bead wires) and those tyres develop flat spots from standing.

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6 years 5 months ago #188016 by Mrsmackpaul
I seem to recall Smorgons at Laverton converted their foundry to run on tyres after the State government jacked up the price of power and gas
All this worked fine and was a very clean efficient and then China started buying tyres and Smorgons couldnt compete and this was one of the reasons they closed that site down

I may have all this wrong and apologize to all if I have my foot in my mouth here


Paul

Actually it may have been the cement works at Geelong ????

dunno it was one of the two

Your better to die trying than live on your knees begging

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6 years 5 months ago #188017 by PDU
Replied by PDU on topic Stawell (Vic.) tyre dump
And they used to go wop. wop, wop, woppity, woppity, whirrrrrrrr, whir, and then were fine.
Loved me old Polyglass tyres :)
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