Friday, 16 December 2022
Austroads has published a new research report on the use of recycled tyres in asphalt from passenger and other non-truck vehicles. The report has been released at a time in Australia when the percentage of end-of-life tyres headed to landfill faces a potential increase.
“Of the 450,000 tonnes of tyres that reach their end of life in Australia each year, thirty per cent go to landfills, are buried or stockpiled illegally,” said Austroads Transport Infrastructure Program Manager, Ross Guppy. “With the recent changes to Australia’s ability to export end-of-life tyres, we are facing a potential increase of these numbers.”
The report aims to identify the market-readiness of Australia and New Zealand to use recycled crumb rubber in asphalt. It evaluates the potential technological opportunities to produce crumb rubber in both countries.
“Currently, most tyres used in crumb rubber asphalt production come from trucks,” Ross said. “There is a gap in the market for tyres that come from non-truck vehicles such as passenger cars and mining tyres.”
The report provides a detailed overview of the current tyre recycling industry and the plants that are producing road-grade crumb rubber. The research found that many recycling plants do not have all the equipment needed to recycle tyres from non-truck vehicles.
Passenger vehicle tyres contain more textile fibre, making them more comfortable for driving on the road. This, however, makes them more complicated to recycle.
Off the Road (OTR) tyres, mostly from mining operations, are also challenging to recycle due to their size, which requires specialised equipment.
Of the recycling plants the author interviewed for the report, less than half had the technology needed to recycle passenger vehicle and OTR tyres.
“The number of plants that are looking to recycle other-than-truck sources of tyres is slowly increasing,” Ross said. “This is thanks to the new investment flows from tyre stewardship associations and government agencies.”
Download the report Passenger Cars and other Non-Truck Tyres Crumb Rubber in Asphalt
For a detailed overview of the report, join us for a webinar on Tuesday 14 February 2023 with Anna D’Angelo, Associate Professor Filippo Giustozzi & Abraham Wani
No charge but registration is essential.
If you can’t make the live session, register and we’ll send you the link to the recording after the live event.