Tire Recycling in Australia
More than 50 million end-of-life tires are collected annually in Australia. Yet only a fraction of them are properly recycled. According to William Amiot, who co-founded the tire recycling company TyreStock, unscrupulous collection companies “are pocketing $3 per tyre each time they collect [and] putting them into a warehouse and doing nothing with them.”
Sometimes, however, the tires are not warehoused but stockpiled in the open. In recent years, such stockpiles around Australia have made headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) spent millions of dollars clearing a stockpile containing over 9m tires in Stawell, Victoria, after owners ignored a court order to fireproof the property in 2018. In 2019, Tony Di Carlo of tire recycling company Tyremil was fined $200 000 for 65 breaches of environmental protection laws. At that point, Tyremil’s Brisbane site contained 10 000 tons of tires and had experienced multiple fires. Later that same year, an illegal tire stockpile in Katherine, Northern Territory, went up in flames. The damage was so widespread that cleanup only finished in 2022 and involved transporting 300 tons of tires and 750 tons of contaminated soil to a licensed disposal site.
While fires are probably the most visible and most damaging hazard, unregulated tire stockpiles present other dangers too. They make attractive habitats for vermin like rats and snakes; they can also contribute to the spread of disease by harbouring mosquitoes. Additionally, tires can leach microplastics and other chemicals into waterways. Although laws exist to regulate tire stockpiles in the interest of public and environmental health, enforcement can be difficult due to unclear ownership, a factor that complicated action against the Stawell dump, or simply come too late as it did in Katherine.
In the past, the relatively low cost of warehousing and stockpiling “undercuts legitimate tyre-processing and recycling businesses” and thereby “reduces resource recovery,” as the Environment Protection Authority of Victoria notes. However, a sea change is taking place at local, state, and federal levels as stakeholders around the country work to create economic opportunities that would render stockpiling obsolete.
State and Local Solutions
Clearly, finding a way to dispose of millions of scrap tires is not easy. However, both state and federal governments are actively pursuing solutions. For example, the Victoria state government manages a variety of grants for sustainable ventures. New South Wales awarded nearly $4m of grants (of a total available $21m) to three tire recycling projects in 2021. Also in 2021, Western Australia’s Recycling Modernisation Fund distributed nearly $20m to five tire recycling companies.
While money and legislation both play an important role the development of tire-derived products, they are not the only factors. Governments, industry, and the public must recognise that end-of-life tires can and should be considered a material with value rather than merely waste. Queensland has taken a step in this direction by recategorising scrap tires used for storing silage in the agricultural sector as a resource.
Local councils can also make a difference. Several years ago, Casey, Victoria, paved roads with crumb rubber asphalt—thereby putting 13 600 tires to good use. “The driving factor was that we could get rid of the tyres,” explained the City of Casey’s Team Leader Civil Construction Michael Apps. “Like all councils, we have an enormous number of tyres that need to be dealt with every year.” The City of Mitcham in South Australia has also trialled similar roads.
Even individual businesses can play a role. In 2017, the Norwell Motorplex in Queensland resurfaced its track with rubberised asphalt. It now contains approximately 25 000 scrap tires. “We have been seeing first hand for years the battle on what to do with used race tyres at the completion of their life and this new product is the answer we have been looking for,” said Norwell’s managing director Paul Morris. “I think it is a no-brainer for the motorsport industry.”
National Policies
Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) is an industry-funded organisation set up in 2014 with the mission of “collaboratively deliver[ing] the sustainable management, recycling and productive use of end of life tyres.” This government-accredited product stewardship scheme in turn accredits retailers, collectors, and recyclers to ensure that waste tires are disposed of in a responsible manner. TSA also works with Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear/Dunlop, Kumho, Michelin, Pirelli, Toyo and Yokohama along with car companies Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen to “promote the development of viable markets for tyre-derived products.” Since 2015, TSA has disbursed $8m to fund 56 different projects—from research to roads to engineering—that “create real-world outcomes and solutions for Australia’s used tyres.” Fleets and local councils can avail themselves of TSA help to purchase new tires from accredited retailers, properly dispose of old tires, and use recycled tire products in playgrounds, parks, and roads.
The Australian government recently took a major step towards domestic management of waste tires: a ban on the export of whole baled tires came into effect in December 2021. Previously, the export of scrap tires to countries like India led to an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude at home while also contributing to environmental degradation in countries that were ill-equipped to properly dispose of this waste. To be sure, the transition to domestic processing is not without challenges. However, this necessary change has opened the door to new opportunities.
Speaking to Waste Management Review, Jim Fairweather of Tyrecycle said that it was now “crucial…to generate domestic consumption” of scrap tires. Around the country, innovators, entrepreneurs, and local governments are taking these words to heart. Processing plants for end-of-life tires have been springing up around the country. In February 2022, the Tasmanian government announced funding for a crumb rubber facility; the product is intended to feed into rubberised asphalt production. Chip Tyre, a long-established tire recycler in New Chum, Queensland, recently set up a pyrolysis facility to complement their crumb rubber business. Meanwhile, Clean Energy Group signed a deal last month with BXB Technologies to turn scrap tires into hydrogen and coke. Tire-derived fuel (TDF) is also experiencing a surge, partly as a response to higher energy prices and a desire to reduce carbon outputs in cement production.
What’s next?
In October 2022, Australia’s environment ministers added scrap tires to the Product Stewardship Priority List, “signalling the intention to regulate should industry not lift its game.” Tyre Stewardship Australia welcomed this announcement, as CEO Lina Goodman has been clear about the problem of effectivising a scheme with voluntary membership.
Even if the ministers’ statement does not drive as much engagement as one would hope, it seems likely that the momentum to find meaningful uses for end-of-life tires in Australia will only continue to grow. From rubberised asphalt to crumb rubber playing surfaces to livestock tire mats, it is unlikely that one technology will emerge as a magic bullet for tire disposal. Rather, it will take a team effort to tackle the problem. And with upwards of 50 million scrap tires being produced annually in Australia, there should be enough for everybody.