A plan to burn scrap tires at a Nova Scotia cement facility is going up in smoke.

Environment Minister Mark Parent said Monday the province would not give Lafarge Canada permission to burn tires at its plant in Brookfield, near Truro.

Brookfield residents who fought the plan are celebrating the government's decision.
(CBC file)

"We won't be looking at tire-derived fuel any time in the near future," he told reporters.

The move is a response to an advisory committee's recommendation that province steer away from incinerating scrap tires and look to recycling them instead.

"The report suggested that there are too many variables, too many unknowns about the emissions and about the technology that would be used, that they couldn't get answers for that," Parent said.

"But if the technology allowed it to be done in a way that is safe to people, I wouldn't want to close the door on it."

The provincial agency responsible for recycling, the Resource Recovery Fund Board, had made a deal with Lafarge to burn more than half of the 900,000 old tires generated every year in Nova Scotia. The tires were to be incinerated at the company's Brookfield plant

The five-year deal called for the other 40 per cent of the tires to be sent to a Lafarge kiln in Quebec.

Even with the RRFB agreement, Lafarge still needed approval from the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Labour to proceed with its plan.

Chris Richards, environmental manager of the Brookfield plant, said the company is disappointed with the government's decision and continues to believe in the tire-burning process.

Lydia Sorflaten and other residents had fought the plan, arguing that emissions would be harmful to their health and the environment.

"We're pleased that the Nova Scotia government has decided not to incinerate tires in Nova Scotia," she said. "We feel that we've been heard as citizens."

Sorflaten doesn't want to see tires from Nova Scotia incinerated anywhere.

But the province will continue to ship old tires to Quebec to be burned or recycled until a long-term plan is worked out.

"We will be meeting with the Department of Environment and developing a long-term strategy for the management of scrapped tires," said RRFB chief executive officer Bill Ring.

Ring said there was no provincial policy on burning tires when the board awarded the contract to Lafarge.

Opposition politicians say the government is finally moving in the right direction, and they want the minister to overhaul the RRFB.

"If they got us into this mess in the first place it's hard to see how, without any changes, they're going to get us out of it," said New Democrat Graham Steele.

"Time for a change," said Liberal Keith Colwell.