Some interesting figures on the destination of old tyres in Australia have been divulged today on the ACCC website as part of the re-confirming of the status of industry-supported Australian Tyre Stewardship Australia.
Green Distillation Technologies, which has developed world first tyre recycling that will turn old tyres into oil, carbon and the steel beading, is not yet a member of TSA as they are not commercially recycling old tyres but have applied for membership, which presumably will be confirmed in the future.
The figures show that the greatest percentage of old tyres from Australia, which is generally estimated at 25 million a year, are exported as tyre derived fuel (38.7%). Most of these tyres are expected to be used as crumbed rubber. Mining landfill at 33.6% is most likely to be old tyres from mining dump trucks where at present this method of disposal is the most common approach, but GDT is working on the logistics to recycle these massive tyres in a planned new facility in Perth, WA.
GDT Chief Operating Officer, Trevor Bayley said: “The 10.9% unknown should be a worry to environmentalists as these could finish up as dumped tyres in rivers, lakes or the bush, or simply piled up in a corner of a property somewhere. Based on the 25 million old tyres generated in Australia this amounts to a not inconsiderable figure of more than 2.5 million.
“The volume of crumbed rubber used as a tyre derived fuel is also of concern as this creates environmentally harmful emissions and is very wasteful of a potentially important resource.
“These figures are very encouraging for us as we can see the immediate market potential we face as we believe that in the future our process will become the standard means of disposing of old tyres around the world in an environmentally friendly way, which is consistent with the growing trend towards achieving a circular economy.”
