Tyre-recycling process launched in Victoria

A new tyre-recycling technology developed in Victoria by the Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) with Melbourne-based company VR TEK, in partnership with Deakin University and the CSIRO, could dramatically reduce the number of used tyres sent to land fill or illegally dumped.

VR TEK’s environmentally sustainable tyre recycling process was unveiled by the Federal Member for Corangamite, Darren Cheeseman, and the State Member for South Barwon, Andrew Katos, at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds Campus.

The research project was funded by the Australian Government ($516,000) through the Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre, in addition to support from the Victorian Government’s partnership with the CSIRO and Deakin University through the Victorian Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing.

More than 20 million used tyres are disposed of in Australia each year. Of those, less than a quarter are recovered and recycled, while the remainder are dumped as waste, where they pose a raft of environmental and public health problems.

Due to their metal content, shredded tyres could not easily be recycled in an economically viable and environmentally sustainable manner. VR TEK has overcome this problem by working with the CSIRO to develop a device which segments old tyres into sections of specific known material composition.

The mechanical segmenting method is highly energy efficient and is the first part of a process developed by Deakin University that results in high-quality rubber powders.

The new patented process enables used tyres to be turned back into high-quality rubber powders free of metal contamination for redevelopment as new products, such as appropriate rubber and elastopolymer-based items.

The rubber crumb produced by the new process is also cheaper than ‘virgin rubber’.

For more information on Australia’s CRCs visit www.crc.gov.au.