Ohio Authority Denies Lease to Scrap Tire Facility

Board members of the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio voted unanimously to reject a plan to allow a tire pyrolysis facility to be built in Grove City, Ohio. The vote was made Jan. 6. The proposed location was at a former trash burning plant the authority operated.

The company that was looking to build the tire plant is called Universal Purifying Technology Co. The company had submitted an application to the state of Ohio’s EPA to process as many as 10,000 scrap tires a day.

In voting against leasing the building to UPT, SWACO noted that one of the major obstacles to the development of the UPT plant is the lack of a reference plant that can be inspected and critically evaluated by SWACO, regulatory agencies and the public in order to assess the long-term operating, environmental and financial impacts of such a plant in our community.

When the Executive Director approved the initial memorandum of understanding, a plant was in operation in Taiwan.

However, that plant is now closed after a very short operating history. In fact, all of the plants in the world that have been constructed utilizing the proposed technology have ceased operations for various reasons after a relatively short period of time.

SWACO also noted that other plants using similar technologies have also closed. At this time the SWACO staff has been unable to determine the quantity and nature of emissions from the facility; to determine facility operational and control issues; and to determine product quality and market suitability.

With additional technological development and operating history, the UPT system may hold great promise. However, its current developmental and operational status means that many questions and uncertainties exist regarding its capability to successfully operate on a sustained basis in an environmentally acceptable and technologically reliable manner.

Given its role as a public agency, SWACO should arguably not be willing to take on the burden of being part of the development of a technology with no proven track record nor a reference facility that can be inspected and examined while in operation. In the interest of fairness to both UPT and the members of the public who have been interested in this project, the SWACO Board should take a definitive position on the fate of the UPT project. It is certain, however, that the project cannot be developed on SWACO property until such time, and unless, the SWACO Board of Trustees approves a sub- lease.

The disapproval of a sub- lease will effectively cease the development of this project as far as SWACO is concerned.