A large fire that ripped through a waste management facility in the Port Lincoln region of South Australia last month serves as an urgent warning to Australian Governments to deal with the growing issue of end-of-life tyre management.

The fire, which was sparked during a heatwave in the region, was fuelled by multiple storage tanks filled with end-of-life tyres and similar combustible materials, releasing severely toxic fumes into the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, multiple occurrences of used tyre stockpiles catching fire have been witnessed across Australia in recent years. Following the decision to ban the exportation of whole-baled tyres in 2021, the automotive industry has been left to deal with the estimated 26 million tyres that are sent to waste each year.

With severe weather events now regularly impacting across the country, combined with the rapidly growing number of used tyres lying idle in waste management centres, MTA Queensland is urging Australian Governments to invest in the technology that safely and responsibly recycles end of life tyres.

“Since the ban came into effect, tyre piles are growing rapidly, as is the price for collecting and storage of the tyres. Prices have grown by 140 per cent since the ban,” said Rod Camm, MTA Queensland CEO.

“As a result, we are commonly seeing businesses having to store large numbers of these materials on-site for months at a time before they can be removed and taken to various stockpiles, leaving an eyesore and incredibly hazardous situation left largely unattended.

“And while legislation was introduced at the Federal level to abolish exportation, the issue of dealing with the fall-out and ensuring the safety of local communities has been left to the respective state governments.”

An Australian innovator has the solution to completely recycle and reuse the components from tyres. Green Distillation Technologies (GDT) has developed a technology that converts end-of-life tyres into sellable commodities including carbon, oil, and steel using a heat-based process that produces no emissions. MTA Queensland is an investor in the company.

“The work of GDT is the first of its kind in Australia and has the potential to change how we view tyres as a recyclable commodity,” said Mr Camm.

“Using nothing but destructive distillation, GDT can turn tyres stripped from old cars – whether that be a light commercial vehicle or a truck – into valuable oil, steel, and carbon that can be on-sold as raw materials.

“GDT need government support and access to crucial funding to enable them to establish operational capacity, whereby private market can invest with confidence, creating a genuine circular economy.”

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (Mar 2023)

14 Mar 2023