Monarch sees power in burning tyres

TONGA’S King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV has come with another unusual economic initiative. He wants to buy old tyres from the US State of Washington and burn them to produce electric power.

He sees the cast-off tyres as the key to the country’s energy independence. The plan involves buying the 30 million old tyres now piled up in Washington state,

chip them and transport them to Tonga.

The estimated cost of T 532.46 million (U 5525.5 million) includes the price of

incinerators. As Washington produces

(or, more accurately, discards) up to five million old tyres a year, the incinerators would be assured of a regular fuel supply.

Greenpeace has already expressed alarm

at the idea, saying that such a project would send a stew of heavy metals,

arsenic, lead and mercury into the air above Tonga, much of which would be carcinogenic. The proposed suppliers of the equipment, Waste Conversion Sys tems Inc, of Denver, Colorado, said it would go ahead only if it was sure the best pollution control technology was used. Waste Conversion president Stan Abrams said his incinerators can produce economic electricity and they were environmentally safe. The machines burn at a temperature of 1370 degrees Celsius, leaving little but ash. □