cropper's column
Page 67
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Sea burial for those old tyres?
• The disposal of waste is a source of good business for a large section of hauliers. To the public the amount and nature of waste is an increasing problem causing ever wider concern, and those creating waste can no longer afford to be completely indifferent to the method of disposal. The haulage industry, for instance, has an obligation to be concerned that the waste it creates can ultimately be "lost" without causing a public nuisance.
The disposal of tyres is an example. Not so long ago, old tyres could be sold off because there was a market for their re-use. Nowadays it is just necessary to get rid of tyres somehow, the best way available; and finding burial homes is a growing, and increasingly costly, problem.
One unexpected answer is burial at sea — abroad a technique has been worked out for their use in encouraging marine life. Stacks of scrap tyres are positioned on the flat, sandy bottoms of the seabed. The tyres form artificial reefs where fish luickly flourish. The rubber reefs lure fish back to old neighbourhoods which were forsaken for lusher feeding grounds. Fish and other undersea dwellers are said to be benefiting from this new form of home-building.
The technique has been tried out at several test installations along the Atlantic coast of the United States. These have proved the value of scrap tyres in enticing fish back to abandoned haunts. And less than a month after the tyres have been deposited on the ocean bottom, invertebrates of the sea start attaching themselves to the rubber reefs!
In about a year, encrusted with barnacles, hydra, algae, sponges and mussels, the tyres are scarcely recognizable. Fish then view them as duplicates of reef or rock and unhesitatingly accept them as part of the natural environment. The rubber structures soon provide both a protective shelter for the small fry and a feeding ground for mature fish. It has been estimated that the Atlantic coastal shelf of the USA can absorb all the tyres produced in that country for a whole decade.
These conclusions result from studies conducted by Dr Richard B. Stone of the Sandy Hook Marine Laboratory of New Jersey„ USA. Dr Stone's task was to evaluate different reef-building materials for increasing marine habitation. His investigations included observations of reefs made from junked car bodies, concrete culvert, old ship and barge hulls, and old tyres. Most were found to be expensive or difficult to handle. Tyres proved to be the one readily available material that is relatively cheap to assemble into units and easy to handle.
In Britain, disposal of old tyres has become a major problem for the tyre and transport industries. Tyres scrapped carelessly by individuals or assembled in heaps create an aesthetic problem and a threat to the environment. The artificial reef programme promises a positive, socially desirable means of disposing of scrap tyres. And we have coastal shelves to receive them.
Ralph Cropper