SWMCOL Attempt to Limit the Spread of the Zika Virus

• 
• 
• 

Share this article

• 
• 
• 

Tyre Shredding

In 2015, the Trinidad & Tobago Solid Waste Management Company LTD. (SWMCOL) turned to EDGE Innovate to enhance their drive to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover, where possible, a wide range of materials from household waste to construction waste. The EDGE Slayer XL provided for the course and medium shredding of untreated municipal solid waste, bulky waste and commercial and industrial waste. The inherent operational efficiencies provided by the EDGE Slayer has allowed for a high capacity volume reduction of landfill waste and has helped SWMCOL realise a greater optimisation of landfill utilization.

With the spread of the Zika virus in South America and the Caribbean region in 2015 and 2016, The Tobago Health Sector in partnership with SWMCOL turned to the EDGE Slayer XL in an attempt to limit the advance of the Zika Virus throughout Trinidad and Tobago.

The Zika Virus is a disease which is primarily transmitted by mosquitos. The number of reported cases of the Zika Virus in Trinidad & Tobago had reached up to 200 cases. Mosquitos are some of the most-effective disease-spreading vectors in the world, capable of passing the virus between groups of people who have not even been in contact. Further, eradicating the mosquito is a rather daunting task. There are, however, ways to target and reduce populations of the insect in particular areas, including depriving it of breeding grounds. Trinidad and Tobago launched a government lead programme to destroy potential breeding environments of the mosquito. A major breeding ground, believe it or not, is inside abandoned tires. Often seen dumped in roadside ditches, dry creek beds, and junkyards, tires quickly fill with standing water and can harbour huge quantities of mosquito eggs. This is especially problematic in summer months, when other water sources tend to dry up.

To destroy breeding grounds of the mosquito, SWMCOL took the decision to deploy the EDGE Slayer XL to shred used tyres which has been a huge breeding ground to mosquitos in Trinidad and Tobago due to the collection of standing water in the tyres. The twin shaft, high torque EDGE Slayer XL shredder provided SWMCOL the most efficient and cost effective solution for reducing the spread of the Zika Virus by discarding the possible breeding grounds within the used tyres.

The EDGE Slayer XL has been designed with strength, durability and serviceability in mind, with impressive design features; such as superb fuel economy with an average fuel consumption of just 25-30ltr/hr (7-8 USG) and offers operators with the lowest running and maintenance shredder on the market. With a huge torque of 80,000Nm, the EDGE Slayer XL is the ideal tyre shredding solution for the SWMCOL organisation.

SWMCOL appealed to all 14 Local Government bodies in Trinidad offering to shred and remove all derelict tyres the corporations had within their boundaries. During the SWMCOL lead exercise a total of 20,000 tyres were collected within the two week long exercise and a total of 13,000 were shredded by the EDGE Slayer XL. Remains of the shredded tyres were used as backfill at the Studley Park Landfill.