Sustainability Victoria and Tyrecycle commission mobile tire shredder in Australia

A joint venture between the Australian state agency Sustainability Victoria and Australian tire recycler Tyrecycle is investing in technology to eliminate stockpiles of rubber waste across the country.

According to the two entities, stockpiles of abandoned tires and conveyor belts can now be eliminated on the spot following the commissioning of a mobile shredding plant designed and built by engineers at Tyrecycle and its parent company ResourceCo. The company says it is the country’s first such mobile unit.

“We wanted to develop a portable solution that could process waste tyres and conveyor belting—anywhere in Australia—into a product of the same quality and specification that we produce in our permanent processing facilities,” Tyrecycle CEO Jim Fairweather says.

Jointly funded by Sustainability Victoria, the mobile shredder will enable Tyrecycle to clean-up the stockpiles of abandoned tires throughout regional and metropolitan Victoria, while eliminating the added expense of transporting whole tires to a fixed processing location.

“This is in line with our strategic purpose to facilitate growth and investment in waste management and resource efficiency in Victoria,” Sustainability Victoria CEO Stan Krpan says. “We want to enhance Victoria’s thriving and sustainable future by improving the way our state manages its resources and end of life products and materials. Supporting the introduction of this Australian-first technology into Victoria is just another way we can deliver on this commitment."

The mobile shredder is designed to not only assist councils burdened by stockpiles of end-of-life waste tires and conveyor belts, but also to meet the needs of remote or regional mining and construction sites. The mobile shredder can process passenger, light truck and truck tires—as well as conveyor belting—at a rate of 10 tonnes per hour, the entities say. It also has the ability to remotely process off-the-road tyres—common to the mining, agricultural and construction industries—into a size suitable for further manufacturing into powders and granules for use in recycled products or as tire derived fuel (TDF). 

Built to withstand Australia’s tough climate and with a safety and environmental focus in mind, the unit has a full safety lock-out system and can operate for 24 hours on a single 620-litre diesel tank at ambient temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius. With parts mirroring those used in Tyrecycle’s large-scale, fixed processing facilities, replacements can be made quickly and easily when required.

Fairweather says apart from the obvious benefit of enabling on-the-spot removal of unsightly stockpiles of tires from Australia’s environs, the shredder also provides for the swift elimination of several significant safety risks.

“Stockpiled tires pose a huge fire risk and provide the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes, which carry diseases such as dengue fever and the Ross River virus,” Fairweather says. “Tires exposed to heat during a fire can also cause waste water pollution and can have disastrous effects on our environment. In fact every tonne of waste tires contain some 875 litres of pyrolytic oil that is released when burnt.”

The mobile shredder will support Tyrecycle’s existing fixed-location operations across Australia, which the company says transform more than 120,000 metric tons per year of tire and conveyor belt waste otherwise destined for landfill into rubber crumb, granules or tire-derived fuel. These products are then repurposed in road and sporting surfaces, playgrounds, brake pads and adhesives, and fuel is used for energy recovery in cement production and paper manufacturing industries.