Whitehaven Coal tyre burial proposal opposed by farmer

Whitehaven Coal is hoping to bury 150 end-of-life heavy vehicle machinery tyres per annum on site until the end in 2025.

It currently stockpiles about 68 of these tyres per year.

Breeza farmer Peter Wills said these tyres were recyclable, so Whitehaven should be following the same processes as everyone else.

"The cost of recycling shouldn't be prohibiting to Whitehaven, they make money and they pay dividends and bonuses to executives," he said.

"They should be paying the cost of recycling, and we're talking for the next four years they've got 600 tyres anticipated to dispose of.

"These shouldn't be buried on a site that will in due course become an agricultural site again."

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But a Whitehaven spokeswoman said "on-site disposal of tyres is permissible in NSW under certain circumstances and is a practice observed by industry participants both here and in other jurisdictions around Australia".

"Where this practice does occur, tyre disposal in spoil emplacements should not compromise the stability of final landforms," she said.

"Tyre stewardship is an area industry is looking at more closely in a sustainability context and Whitehaven is committed to reviewing its approach regularly to assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of alternative approaches."

According to the modification report for the proposal, "recycling facilities do not exist proximal to the WCCM [Werris Creek Coal Mine] and transport of waste heavy vehicle tyres to these facilities is not viable".

"These recycling facilities are also generally designed on a local council scale for passenger tyres and thus capacity is an issue," the report read.

Mr Wills wrote to Liverpool Plains Shire Council mayor Doug Hawkins and other councillors and staff so they would "make a strong logical stand on this issue".

But Cr Hawkins said the council was still discussing the issue.

"We haven't formulated a response," he said.

"I guess that will come when all the councillors are consulted and we can workshop it but at this stage we haven't got a policy on it."

The spokesperson said Whitehaven would respond to all issues raised by community members through the formal response to submissions process.

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