Let’s go to the dumps!, this may seem quite a distasteful invitation , but if you just allowed your curiosity prevail over any incidental tendency to squirm at the atrocious sight and attending revolting stench of such places; and followed me, you may discover what’s apparently to most Ghanaians the most commonplace of the commonplace spectacle.

Laying upon the sleuths of the smoldering landfills sites and out of places refuse dumps are really fantastic piles of garbage, made of rubber or plastic. The filth holds equal sway over our waterways and drains, commandeering them, choking them quite literally and exacerbating the eyesore that is the state of sanitation in this nation. Incredible yet, is the fact that everyone knows who the culprits are of such oppression; perpetrating their mischief in plain sight, they’ve become super stars like any other, media darlings who have touched the zeniths of public infamy in our society; they are what I like to call, The Indomitable Polymer Gang; whose movers, shakers and linchpins include, the Iconic Black Polythene Bag, the Omnipresent sachet water package and food packages and wrappings of all sorts. Indeed, their stature in our recent history is something approaching the untouchable with numerous schemes rolled out against them failing to quell their scourge.

But I am not simply happy to reiterate one item in the long list of our social blights or to satirize our often detrimental attitudes to the problem like we’re fond of doing. Instead, this is a stab, at casting a long obscured light on an unsung member of the gang; namely the Scrap tire. It may not monopolize the headlines and news stories every time the rains come but this minnow, though far less ubiquitous could deliver the goods that see us standing a fighting chance in our great impasse against some of the most formidable detractors of our progress whilst making a significant stride across a hitherto difficult threshold into a future of more innovative, sustainable, greener problem solving. The key lies in its recycle and I might not be alluding to its regrettable role in “wele” or cow-hide processing.

Unlike its accomplices, the mention of scrap tires in this light is sure to raise a few eyebrows; off course the issue does beg some introduction; hence, before broaching this matter any further, lets acquaint ourselves briefly with the scrap tire; The Rubber Manufacturers Association of America define it as “a tire that can no longer serve its originally intended purpose”. They contain 47% carbon black, 16.5% steel, 5.5% nylon fibre, sulphur among other elements; they also hold a remarkable amount of energy vis-à-vis other fuels like bituminous coal and petroleum coke. According to Genan Corp, a tire recycle firm; 13.5 million tons of scrap tire are generated annually, estimates in the U.S alone according to their E.P.A stand at over 300 million that’s a tire for every person there not to mention the 2 to 3 billion stock-piled. The tires are largely retreaded or shipped off for re-use elsewhere; they nonetheless have a plethora of applications as Tire-Derived-Fuel (TDFs), civil engineering, utilities and a host fields, but I am personally fascinated by their application in producing high quality usable diesel and micronized rubber powder. Consensus on tire recycle has its roots in North America with the 1985 Ontario Hagersville dump fires which lasted 17 days fuelled by scrap tires; the environmental damage was unspeakable. Legislations soon emerged and resolve on the matter spread like the fires that ignited them, through several states in the U.S , thus far the European Union has had its Landfill (99/31/EC(1)); Combusting (2000/76/18(2)) and End-Of-Life Vehicle (2000/53/EC) directives which goes to the heart of this particular and a mixed bag of closely related ones and Japan has led the charge in Asia

Closer home, in Africa the idea of tire recycle though still a fledgling one is not so far-fetched; Kampala, Kenya comes to mind as the site of one such programme, the home however of the most prominent of such undertakings that I am aware of is South Africa , with its Redisa Project, an initiative of the nation’s Environmental Affairs Department; according to a report by the Mail and Guardian news; Mr. Hermann Erdmann, head honcho of the programme reckons that feedstock gathered and supplied to about 34 country-wide it to process 2 million tons of scrap tires into “commodity” each month; providing jobs while developing the secondary industry. Surely we can take a leaf and with earnest and strategic government initiative, incentivization, regulation and bearing in mind the recent history of such schemes in the country; sound, transparent implementation; I believe some tremendous rewards may inure to us.

We don’t have to look far for motivation; between January and September 2010; 9189 car accidents were recorded with the loss of life well into the thousands, a harrowing statistic; one prevalent cause: worn-out tires; an innumerable number of them under cars trundling about on our roads, we have only to sanction a practical, conscionable clamp down on them, then Voila! we may have a critical volume of feedstock for a viable industry and as an added boon curtail the endless stream of mortalities. (Fact: Rubber Modified Asphalt may be used in road construction to make it safer.)

Now, while our destiny as a country may be inexorable from hydro-electric power as it stands; it is only a responsible thing to eye the alternatives given the constant short-falls. Wyandotte, a city in the Michigan area for example produces electricity for 10000 households and 3000 businesses by recycling scrap tires in their utility boilers, it is cleaner and cheaper than coal; Grayling city does same according to a Detroit Free Press publication. Its not without its pitfalls but for my money its certainly worth exploring.

What’s more, renewable energy companies the world over, through a remarkable process called Pyrolysis are able to extract high-grade usable diesel from the tires, now that could be used to augment our fuel supply to government agencies and officials, if nothing at all. Its all quite possible we could as the timeless latin phrase puts it “find order out of the chaos”, while turning a tidy profit; if the discussion went beyond the merit of this article and culminated in some initiative and resolve to provide some enablement to the droves of engineers our tertiary schools churn out every year. Think about the new drive it will spur towards renewable energy investments and a greater conscious of sanitation and the environment at large and I daresay also that this proposal measures up shoulder to shoulder if not a little higher with other some might say “botched” schemes of recent years.

This argument may be in characteristic Ghanaian fashion, dismissed as the words of some idle tree-hugger, chasing after unicorns, but be reminded that although the ice is melting a million miles away from our sunny streets, its vanishing with our shorelines. We may well lose this opportunity and cower under the weight of filth and waste for all eternity.