In an effort to dispose of the large amount of waste tyres that have accumulated at the George Town Landfill, the Ministry of Health and successful contractors met on Monday, 15 August 2016 to sign the official waste tyre shredding agreement.

Premier and Minister for Health, Hon. Alden McLaughlin, MBE, JP, said the contract is just one component of the overall project to provide the Cayman Islands with a long term solution for the country’s solid waste issues, and to create a proper integrated solid waste management system. The Premier explained the recycled waste tyres will be used as “fill” in development projects around the island. In addition to the shredding and recycling of the waste tyres, the Department of Environmental Health has undertaken a number of efforts to continuously improve solid waste management in the Cayman Islands.

“One of the things we are very excited about is that this process is entirely in keeping with our objective of reusing and recycling waste products. The Tyre Derived Aggregate (TDA), which will be produced as a result of this process, will be reused for construction over the course of the years to come in local projects,” Mr McLaughlin said.

Island Recycling Ltd., and its international business partner GRG, were selected by the Ministry of Health and Culture, through the Central Tenders Committee process, for the project. Island Recycling Managing Director Jason Brown said the company’s goal is to deliver a safe, successful and environmentally friendly recycling project that will be professionally completed.

“We are grateful for the opportunity. We know we have a lot of hard work ahead of us and we’re ready to meet the challenge of turning the large stockpiles of waste tyres into re-suable TDA” Mr Brown stated.

He said the company does have some experienced tyre recycling experts coming from its overseas business partner, but emphasised that this project will also create local employment and the transfer of new recycling skills.

“I think this is a win-win situation not only for the government, but for the people of the islands in terms of the way that we’re choosing to process the tyre materials, making it a TDA, meaning that it can be recycled and used on island versus the expense of export,” he explained.

With the shredding contract signed and now in place, Mr Brown said once the required –specialised recycling plant and equipment arrives on island, work will commence immediately and they hope to start processing tyres within four months. When they have moved onto their waste tyre processing site on the landfill Island Recycling estimate it will take them approximately 11 months to shred the tyres currently stockpiled at the landfill.

Councillor for Health Roy McTaggart said the used tyres will be processed and removed from the site in an efficient and timely manner to reduce various risks.

“Everyone knows it’s been a safety hazard for us, in terms of potential fires at the landfill, as we’ve had in the past. Used tyres are also a preferred breeding ground for the Aedes aegypti mosquito which carries the Zika virus, as well as dengue fever and chikungunya,” he said. “These issues that are significant to government and to the people of the Cayman Islands, and they are really going to be dealt with quite nicely once this is all done.”

Councillor McTaggart emphasised that the signing of the contract, “is a significant step, and at this point we’re happy to say now the project can move forward and all things are in gear. I think everyone wants to see this project dealt with once and for all.”

The Premier agreed and elaborated that “the landfill is an issue and has been an issue for the country for many, many years, and while many people believe we are moving far too slowly, we are absolutely committed to developing a long term plan that creates a solution that will last the course of the next 50 years.”