Environment Minister Pearnel Charles Jr - file photo
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Pearnel Charles Jr
The government is to spend about $43 million annually over the next ten years on a national programme for the environmental management of used pneumatic tyres.
The programme will begin this financial year in collaboration with Caribbean Cement.
This follows a pilot programme last year for the transportation and offloading of the tyres for use in the manufacturing of cement.
Environment Minister Pearnel Charles Jr said the used tyres pose public health and environmental risks.
He said 20,000 tyres are received monthly by disposal sites across Jamaica.
"In Riverton alone, we have 9,000 tyres per month received, and that's the largest quantity in our country. Now, very important to note is that the tyres have serious public health and environmenal risk. Needless to say, we know that we have suffered from a range of fires over the years in our country and the pneumatic tyres have contributed to these fires and to the enormous cost to the government and to the people of Jamaica," he asserted.
Mr. Charles said more than two million tyres will be removed from the Riverton Disposal site during the first phase of the programme. That is estimated to cost $272 million.
Phases two and three of the programme will be carried out at other sites at an estimated cost of $47 million. The inventory of waste tyres is estimated to cost $3 million and a public education and awareness campaign should cost about $50 million.
Mr. Charles said these coupled with a 15 per cent contingency cost should total $428 million, which he noted was still less than the cost to the government to extinguish fires.
The minister was speaking Wednesday morning at a post cabinet media briefing.
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