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There is a big fire at a tyre depot in Warsop (where Maddy Bell's Gaby comes from).
Fire crews from across Nottinghamshire were called to deal with a blaze involving around 400,000 tyres at a site near Mansfield on Friday night.
Part of the town of Warsop was closed off as flames engulfed the tyres at the Warsop Tyre company on Oakfield Lane.
Thick acrid smoke was seen for several miles and people living nearby were told to keep doors and windows closed.
See BBC News report on:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8074977.stm
Gabi
Comments
Why?
Why would a tire company have 400,000 tires sitting around? Don't they ever sell any of them?
Old Tires
Likely they are old tires, due to be recycled at some point in time. Most of the U.S. has some sort of mandatory recycling for old tires, but the supply is far larger than the demand. I wouldn't be surprised if the same situation was true in the U.K. That usually means vast stacks of them sitting around, and if they catch on fire a tire fire is damned hard to extinguish.
They know they can survive
I suspect...
...that this is how many of them are "recycled."
If they are packed tightly and unwatered, especially when they begin to deteriorate, they can burst into flame spontaneously, so the temptation is to neglect them and be "surprised" when the problem goes away.
They're a major hassle. One in California, near Tracy in the Central Valley, burned for more then two years before it was extinguished.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Quite possible
You may well be right. Tire fires can really only be extinguished with chemical foam, and the amount required for a fire of any size is truely staggering. And first you have to pull the stacks apart and scatter the burning tires out, and there is hardly ever enough room for that.
They know they can survive
Luckily....
There seem only to be 800,000 tyres. The one in Tracy was fed by Seven millions of tyres. If one has a handy source of clayish soil, one can bury the lot and let the lack of oxygen snuff it out eventually, although from the looks of it in the news reports, nearby villagers might object to having a small mountain brought into the town and parked for a year or two.
The worst of it is the toxic effluents and vapours emitted into the air, the water supply, and anywhere the vapourised oils fall from the air after cooling.
They ought to make the manufacturers directly responsible for the recycling of them, and enforce it, because the business model for "independent" recyclers yields so little profit that they're tempted to "wait and see" if prices will ever go up, so the piles are essentially a massively combustible rubbish tip that waits around for lightning, mischance, or arson to pollute the near environs.
The manufacturers encourage this, because paying an independent company, especially one with limited liability, neatly shifts almost all the reasonably-expected costs onto the public purse.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Believe it or not...
Some used tires are "recicyled" into shoes... and others into pavement. Apparently, as this indicates, some are recycled into air polution.
Tire recycling
It's too bad that a tiny US company hasn't been able to patent their equipment yet. Then this sort of thing will become a thing of the past. In case anyone is interested, this equipment uses microwaves in a sealed chamber to reduce a tire into based components such as (from the company's own website): For every 1 ton of tires processed in the GRC Patriot 1, there is 120 gallons of oil, 5000 cubic ft. of combustible gases, 200 pounds of reusable steel and 750 pounds of carbon ash produced which are all marketable commodities.
The one thing about the statement I quoted above, the oil it makes is basically biodiesel. That means it can be used to run equipment to help load and process the tire recycling. I have been watching this company for the last year with great interest. And this company is making large capacity units that will be able to process 20 tons of tires an hour and render them down to their base components. The do the math for the amount of tires around the world sitting in dumps waiting for recycling or otherwise. What better to do than to render them down and sell the reusable stuff and make a profit off of it? The units are not able to be sold because the US Patent Office has not approved the patent. The sort of issue that started this thread would become a thing of the past. Plus the unit can process other things too. If anyone is interested in learning more about this technology, they can visit the company's website at:
http://www.globalresourcecorp.com/
Goldie
Completely true...
Each and every tyre contains the equivalent of two gallons of oil. The 800,000 tyres now burning are essentially one million, six hundred thousand gallons of oil, or thirty-eight thousand standard petroleum barrels, or 620 US tons, about two West Cork oil spills, roughly half the amount of oil that spilt onto the coast of Wales in the MV Sea Empress spill, or three times the amount spilt into the Delaware in the Grand Eagle spill.
That's a lot of oil.
The fires do a fairly good job of heating the tyres enough to "crack" the heavy petroleum into lighter oils, which both burn and seep into the ground.
Apologies to any offended by US measures, but they are standard in the global oil trade.
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Put more succinctly (or economically)
a shade more than 1.5 million pounds (a bit less than 2.5 million USD) at current oil prices ("((1600000 / 42 ) * 65) * 0.619617077=" and paste into google; based on industry standard of 42 gallons US per barrel and current exchane rates for USD to British Pounds)...
A lot to think about, seems a waste to not be able to recover the oil used. If only the tire makers could "crack" them and use the products again :(
Diana
ps And just think, that is only one of thousands such places around the world...
Tires and oil
Diana,
In the post a couple above yours, you'll find a link. If you could go to the site and look, you'll see exactly what I was talking about. I think you would be enlightened by what you read. I own stock in the company. I'm just waiting patiently for the patent to be approved for this product. It would be a perfect seller worldwide for recycling tires. It can also process heavy oils into a product that can be consumed normally. It can also process oil shales, and tar sands into usable products. it is just a matter of being able to produce them for public and private use.
Goldie