Spain seeks shredder for five million tyres dumped on a site near Madrid

Spanish authorities announced earlier this week that they are looking for a company who can shred the five million tyres that have been left on a dump site north of Toledo.

The 117,000 square metre site is located 400 metres from a housing development and has been collecting tyres since 2002.

The dump is now a safety hazard due to the fire risk of the material. If a fire started at the site the main airport in Madrid would have to close down and about 11,000 homes could be evacuated.

The Spanish authorities are now looking for a company which has the capacity to shred the volume of rubber and have announced that they will put out a tender in January. 

There was a company which initially took on the recycling, but with only four employees it wasn’t in a position to deal with the increasing number of tyres. That company was fined and its owner was jailed for a three month sentence for crimes against the environment.

Although the site has not been open for dumping since 2011 the tyres have not yet been recycled. The mayor of the area was detained on bribery charges in connection to the project but the case did not go to trial.