Displaying items by tag: Government

Ireland: Irish Cement has been granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanala for its plans to burn tyres and tyres and solid recovered waste at its Limerick plant. Local councils originally approved the project in 2017 but this was appealed to the national An Bord Pleanala following local protests. Environmental groups say they will continue to fight the plan.

Canada: A Nova Scotia judge has dismissed a residents' group's bid for a judicial review of the province's decision to allow the Lafarge Brookfield cement plant to burn tyres as fuel in its kiln. Justice James Chipman of the provincial Supreme Court said the environment minister's approval of a project at the plant was reasonable, according to the Canadian Press newspaper.

Lafarge plans to burn up to 5200t/yr of tyres. Once the cement producer has obtained an industrial approval for the one-year pilot project to co-process tyres the province’s waste diversion agency is expected to supply it with around 280,000t/yr of tyres. The scheme has received criticism locally because Nova Scotia residents pay an environmental handling fee when they buy new tyres, promoting commentators to suggest that this revenue would be subsidising a large company.

India: The government of Trichy in Tamil Nadu has signed a deal with IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services to supply refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to UltraCement’s plant at Ariyalur. The waste processor will supply 12,000t/yr of fuel to the cement plant over two years until the end of January 2020, according to the Times of India. The deal will also create up to 45 jobs.

Spain: Local environment authorities have approved Cementos Cosmos to increases its alternative fuels substitution rate to up to 45% from its current limit of 30%. The plant has been supplementing its petcoke use with refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and biomass, according to the Córdoba newspaper. The plant, and its owners Brazil’s Votorantim Cement, have faced local opposition to changing its fuels mix.

UK: The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has welcomed a report by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser on the value of waste for its referencing of co-processed recycling of waste derived fuels and raw materials in the cement industry. The report, entitled ‘From waste to resource productivity’ by Mark Walport, looks at waste as a resource.

It is accompanied by a case study report that brings together evidence and opinions from a range of stakeholders, including a study from MPA’s Richard Leese and Rebecca Hooper regarding co-processing waste in cement. This document is not a statement of government policy, but the MPA says it is the first UK government report to reference co-processed recycling of waste derived fuels and raw materials.

“UK cement manufacturers recycle 1.5Mt of waste and by-products annually. Government scientists have finally acknowledged the important recycling that the cement industry provides for UK society,” said Richard Leese, MPA’s Director of Industrial Policy, Energy and Climate Change. He added that the next step would be for the government to account for the ‘societal benefit’ of waste products in its official recycling statistics.

Canada: The Environment Department is reviewing an application from Lafarge Canada to burn tyres at its Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia. The government department has 60 days to approve or deny the application for a one-year pilot project, according to the Canadian Press news agency. However, the pilot project has faced opposition from local residents, environmental groups and the Province’s New Democratic Party.

Canada: The New Democratic Party has called for a ban of burning tyres in Nova Scotia. The opposition political party held a news conference with opponents of the government's decision in July 2017 to approve a one-year pilot project allowing Lafarge Canada to burn tyres for energy at the company's Brookfield cement plant, according to the Canadian Press newspaper. No tyres have been burned at the plant so far as the cement producer waits for industrial approval of the project from the provincial government.

Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre said the government’s decision was based on a Dalhousie University engineering study that was too narrow in its focus and wasn't peer reviewed. However the government has said that it used several technical studies to inform its decision. A group of local residents also started legal action in August 2017 on the grounds that the project violated the province's Environment Act.

India: Wonder Cement has signed a memorandum of understanding with the municipal council of Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh. The agreement will see the council arrange refuse collection, separation and transportation to the cement company’s plant at Nimbahera, according to the Press Trust of India. The council is already processing wet waste to make organic fertiliser.

India: The Telangana state government has issued a government order (GO) requesting cement and power plants to buy and use refuse-derived fuel (RDF) when RDF is within 100km of a plant. Local government and RDF plants have been made responsible to pay for the transport costs to transport RDF to plants outside of the 100km zone. The GO has also prohibited the open burning of waste materials on open land and at landfill sites. The government said that the legislation follows a National Green Tribunal order issued in December 2016

Canada: The Nova Scotia provincial government has given permission for Lafarge Canada’s Brookfield plant to burn tyres for one year. Environment Minister Iain Rankin said that the results would be examined at the end of the pilot period.

“My decision is based on the science and evidence associated with this application as well as the public feedback received which helped to shape conditions of the approval,” said Rankin. “This pilot will confirm if the company can reduce current carbon emission levels at its Brookfield plant as the information provided in the application indicates.”

Terms of the pilot project include limiting tyre-derived fuel to 15% of total daily input and no more than 20t/day, forming a community liaison committee to keep residents informed of the project’s status and address their questions and to develop a complaints resolution plan.

Lafarge Canada will also be required to submit plans for related activities and apply for a temporary industrial approval to operate the pilot project. The required plans include: tyre storage and waste management; air dispersion modelling; continuous monitoring of emissions; stack testing before and after the pilot begins; and an emergency response if there is a malfunction of the kiln. The results of the pilot will be made public through a community liaison committee.

However, the plan has received criticism from the local community on environmental grounds. The local press has also questioned whether the provincial government is subsidising Lafarge Canada’s fuel costs as the region charges consumers recycling tariffs on goods such as tyres. A previous plan by the cement producer to burn tyres in the region in 2007 was blocked by the local government.