style="text-transform: uppercase;">Kota Kinabalu: City Hall is in the midst of finalising a deal with a local company to accept used tyres for chipping and recycling as well as getting approval from the Department of Environment (DOE) to do so, said Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir. "City Hall is in the midst of discussing and finalising things with a local company to take all the used tyres to be recycled. We have to get approval also from the DOE, the federal agency, as we have to follow rules and procedures.

"We have already discussed with the company and we will seek DOE's approval as it involves chipping and recycling (of tyres). If there is no problem, especially on environmental effect, we will proceed," Madingkir said.

"All the tyres will be sent to this company at Kayu Madang; all the tyres will be sent there, collected and recycled," he said, adding that it was similar to the Sarawakian model.

He was commenting on the controversy surrounding the ban by City Hall on tyre disposal by tyre dealers at the Kayu Madang landfill, which had stirred an uproar.

Madingkir, however, refused to address or comment on the 'ultimatum' posed by the tyre dealers' association to lift the ban, saying that he would only shed light on City Hall's efforts to resolve the issue.

"I don't want to comment on what they had been saying (on the ultimatum). I'll only talk about what City Hall had been doing. We don't just sit down, in fact, all the while, we had been looking into the issue, the ways to resolve it.

"But we did not want to reveal it as we had been discussing and waiting to see the result before announcing it," he asserted.

When asked when the practice would take place, Madingkir said City Hall is awaiting the green light from the DOE. As soon as the nod was given, the tyres would be channelled to the appointed local company for processing.

"If they (DOE) give us the green light, it will be soon," he assured, adding that City Hall would aid the company to establish its plant in Kayu Madang.

Madingkir was officiating the Mini Convention of Innovative and Creative Group (KIK) in conjunction with Innovation Day at the City Hall building on Tuesday.

He also presented the prizes to the winners of DBKK Invention Using Recycled Items Competition 2015 and DBKK Innovation Awards Competition 2015 here.

He said the first competition received around 20 entries with 28 inventions from the different departments within City Hall. It was won by the Innovator from JKPB who came up with Inno Bin from used tyres. They walked away with RM1,000 and a trophy.