Plans far advanced to remove 1.5 million tyres from Riverton Landfill – Samuda
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Plans to remove 1.5 million used tyres from the Riverton Landfill in St. Andrew are far advanced, says Government Senator, Matthew Samuda.
Speaking at this year’s staging of the Youth Climate Action Expo, hosted by the Jamaica Climate Change Youth Council at Campion College on March 16, Samuda said there is a programme that will come on stream in a couple of months where “we will be grinding all the tyres”.
“We found two businesses that can use them in particular mixes, both for asphalt and for cement, so within four years, based on what their consumption will be, we will no longer have waste tyres as a part of our waste stream in Jamaica,” the Senator said.
The expo was held under the theme ‘Staying above the Tide: Jamaica After the Plastic Ban’.
Senator Samuda pointed out that the plastic ban is only the first step of many in the Government’s move to address the waste stream and consumption patterns and reduce the negative impact on the country.
“Riverton, for example, has had many fires. When it really becomes a problem is usually when the areas where the tyres are catches fire, and you see the black billowing smoke, which pretty much locks down a sizeable part of Kingston,” he noted.
The project was first announced by Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Hon. Daryl Vaz, last November when he stated that engagement with private entities to undertake the project would begin in the first quarter of the 2019/2020 fiscal year.