Following an incident on June 21, 2004, the company was forced to bring its tyre recovery trial to a halt at its cement works at Lawford Road in Rugby. The incident meant the plant was emitting particulate matter above the permitted levels for almost three hours before being shut down (see letsrecycle.com story).
But the Environment Agency has said Rugby Cement may be allowed to restart its tyre recovery trial after it submitted information required by the Agency's Enforcement Notice concerning the June incident.
The notice had required Rugby Cement to provide a satisfactory explanation of the incident, take action to ensure that an incident of the type “is not likely to happen again” and to show that the incident had not been caused by burning tyres as a fuel.
Area environment manager Dr David Hudson said: “We have begun the process of carefully considering the company’s responses. There is no set timescale for a decision but we will inform all parties when it is made.”
Dr Hudson added: “Clearly this incident has worried local residents. We will not allow the trial to restart unless we are fully satisfied that the company’s responses will mean that the tyre trial will not impact on the environment or human health”
The trial had originally begun in May 2004, a start date that had been delayed by a month because of Agency concerns that the plant might not have been operating to an optimum standard.
Subscribe for free