The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (NSW EPA) has given the green light to Australia’s first green tyre-recycling plant in the small town of Warren in central-northern NSW.

The project, headed by Australian tech company Green Distillation Technologies, aims to address the huge numbers of tyres disposed of in Australia at their end-of-life. Around 20 million tyres reach the end of their lives in Australia each year, the vast majority of which wind up in landfill.

The new recycling plant will turn these old tyres into high-grade oil, steel and carbon via a process called “destructive distillation”, which involves using a chemical reaction to process tyres back into raw materials. Once the pilot plant in running is running at full capacity, it is expected to process around 19,000 tonnes of material each year, around 685,000 tyres.

Each passenger car tyre is estimated to contain approximately 1.5kg of steel, 0.5kg of textiles and 7kg of rubber. In a statement to ABC News, the EPA said the plant in Warren had passed all requirements from the EPA Energy from Waste Policy Statement.

"The licence requires the operator to meet strict emission limits and undertake comprehensive monitoring to ensure that the environment and community are protected."

The company is also planning to introduce larger plants in six other locations around Australia, including one that has already had its development application approved in Toowoomba. Only about 16% of tyres in Australia are currently recycled.

 

Positive Action

• Find out more information on tyre recycling and its importance by visiting Tyre Stewardship Australia.
• For more information on how to recycle confusing and complex items like tyres, e-waste and more, visit RecyclingNearYou.
  
  

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Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.