Lydia Sorflatin, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Burning of Tires, says the coalition is opposed to the one-year pilot project recently approved for Lafarge Canada Inc., saying it is worried about air pollution.
The citizens group, which scheduled a public meeting for Wednesday night, is drawn mainly from residents living near the Brookfield, N.S., plant and is coming together a decade after a committee formed by the former Conservative government rejected a previous attempt by Lafarge to begin incinerating old tires.
The residents say little has changed in terms of the proposed technology, and they say they remain concerned that the chlorine in tires will release dioxins that have been linked to cancer.
Last week, the province’s recently elected Liberal government approved a one-year project that will monitor emissions from the tires being incinerated.
Lafarge, a French multinational, says burning tires is better for the environment that using other fuels.
However, Nova Scotia’s private sector tire recycler, Halifax C and D Recycling Ltd., says it would be better to shred the tires into aggregate material that can be used in other products.
