Millions of spare tyres on the move to Auckland
A Chinese government-owned stockpile of two million tyres stored at a Waikato yard will have to be moved by November 15 to comply with an abatement notice. And it looks like the tyres will be heading to Auckland.
The tyre yard in Kerepehi, southeast of Ngatea in the Hauraki Plains, is managed by Waste Management Ltd, which claims it shreds 30 tonnes of tyres a day at the site.
According to the Companies Office website, Waste Management Ltd is owned by Beijing Capital Group, a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
After 2000 to 4000 new tyres were being dumped at the Kerepehi site each day, a source said, Waikato Regional Council officers issued an abatement notice.
Waste Management Ltd has told the regional council it plans to shut down the Kerepehi operation by June next year, the source said.
The company was setting up a warehouse in Auckland, which should be operational by the end of this year. Hauraki fire chiefs were concerned the Kerepehi stockpile could become an environmental threat if it caught fire, due to the way the tyres were stacked. Tyre fires are notoriously hard to extinguish and the environmental effects can be deadly.
‘‘On October 5, regional council served abatement notices to Waste Management Limited,’’ a council spokeswoman confirmed.