Tyrecycle cleans up tyre dumping ground

Tyre recycler Tyrecycle has been called on to clean up 3000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres abandoned at Pinkenba in Brisbane.

According to Tyrecycle CEO Jim Fairweather, paying customers had trusted that the end-of-life tyres would be recycled by an unscrupulous operator which instead vacated the site, leaving several years’ worth of waste behind.

The thousands of end-of-life passenger, all-wheel-drive, truck and earthmoving vehicle tyres set off numerous safety and environmental alarms for Tyrecycle. Fairweather explained, “Rubber waste quickly becomes a fire hazard, and the site’s proximity to Brisbane’s domestic and international airports made this particular occurrence all the more fraught with danger.

“A fire on the site would have caused significant disruption to air traffic.”

He added that the practice of stockpiling end-of-life tyres also creates a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes and has a devastating impact on vegetation and wildlife.

Tyrecycle took three weeks to clear the site of tyres. The company is no stranger to the clean-up process, annually collecting and recycling more than 120,000 tonnes of tyre and conveyor belt waste otherwise destined for landfill in Australia.

“Once the waste arrives at any of our five specialised facilities, we use an EPA-approved processing method to transform it into rubber crumb, granule or tyre-derived fuel,” Fairweather stated.

The crumb and granule is supplied to domestic markets for re-use in road and sporting surfaces, playgrounds, adhesive manufacturing and brake pads. The fuel is used for energy recovery.

“The 3000-plus tonnes of tyres at the Pinkenba site were once an unsightly and major fire risk,” Fairweather said.

“They have since been transformed into fuel that is now powering high-energy industrial kilns.”