Why are waste car tyres, oils and oil filters, power and car batteries harmful to the environment?

Click to enlarge picture

Every year ~15 thousand tons of car tyres, 245 tons of oil and oil filters and several thousands of batteries and car batteries are imported into Latvia. All of these goods contain compounds harmful to humans and the living nature and if handled incorrectly after their dilapidation, definitely endangers the environment and the human health.

What are the harmful substances and what is their impact?

1. Oils (motor oils, lubricant oils, etc.) and oil filters contain a significant amount of heavy metals.  The most well-know heavy metals are Lead, Mercury and Cadmium. If waste oils soak into the soil or water, the heavy metals are absorbed by plants and animals and humans being at the top of the food chain, therefore damage the human health. Oil and oils products also contain a large amount of crude oil products. The purification of soil and water polluted with crude oil products is a very expensive and time-consuming process. The most serious risk to the human health is caused when these products reach groundwater and from there reaches drinking water.
2. Car tyres, when dumped in the environment, cause aesthetic pollution. Car tyres disintegrate very slowly. Tyres left in meadows, forests or rivers may take up to several decades to disintegrate. Tyres cause a more negative impact if they are burn (e.g. in forest fires or when burning last year’s grass). When burnt, rubber discharges thick, pungent and toxic smoke that is harmful both to animals and people. 
3. Power batteries and batteries contain a large amount of various hazardous substances, depending on the type of power batteries and batteries. The most harmful are car batteries that contain a large amount of Lead and various acids. If waste car batteries are not handled with care and end up in the open after their dilapidation, they start rusting and leak all the contained harmful substances into the soil and water thus irreversibly damaging the environment. Household batteries also contain heavy metals.

How to prevent this from happening?

First, every one of us should refrain from disposing of the mentioned items together with household waste or, even worse, duping them in the forest or any other place in the nature. All of the mentioned waste goods should be delivered to special collection sites – batteries are collected at the place of merchandise (special bins are located in ~3 000 shops and educational institutions) as well as at specialised waste sorting sites. The waste collected at these sites is delivered to recycling factories. Before utilisation, the useful parts (recyclable rubber, non-ferrous and ferrous metals, etc.) are separated and later used in the production of new goods. For instance, from one ton of power batteries you can extract: 

• Manganese Dioxide – 270 kg;
• Iron  – 210 kg;
• Zinc – 160 kg;
• Graphite – 60 kg;

Consequently, by delivering batteries, oils and tyres to special collection sites we not only take care of the quality of the environment around us and our health, but also help save many valuable natural resources.