Tyrecycle’s East Rockingham facility recycling old truck tyres from Alcoa mines in Pinjarra and Wagerup

A Rockingham facility is giving new life to old truck tyres.

Tyrecycle’s East Rockingham facility, which opened earlier this year, is taking “off-the-road” (OTR) haul truck tyres from Alcoa’s bauxite mines near Pinjarra and Wagerup and turning them into a crumbed rubber product.

The product can be used in various ways, including as a crumbed rubber modified bitumen and soft-surface applications, including those used on athletics tracks and in playgrounds.

Alcoa water and waste global program manager Nicole King said the recycling project had been a long time in the making.

“We wanted to be sure our end-of-life OTR tyres were being managed and generating products that support our waste management objectives,” she said.

“We have set ourselves the global goal of a 25 per cent reduction in landfilled waste by 2030 from a 2015 baseline.

“OTR tyres are a significant material stream for our WA mining operations and recycling end-of-life tyres will make a contribution towards achieving our goal.

“In addition, Tyrecycle’s location and solution help us work towards Alcoa’s global ambition to achieve carbon net zero by 2050.”

According to Tyrecycle, about 130,000 tonnes of OTR tyres reach their end of life in Australia each year and less than 10 per cent of these are recycled.

Tyrecycle chief executive Jim Fairweather said the East Rockingham facility was Australia’s largest and most flexible tyre recycling facility, catering for OTR, commercial and passenger tyres.

“Our partnership with Alcoa marks our first contracted agreement with a South West mining operator to recycle OTR tyres,” he said.

“Tyrecycle’s goal is to deliver sustainable outcomes for our clients, where waste is a resource, not a problem, and we are proud to have established this state-of-the-art facility in the Rockingham region with strong support from Government and industry.”

Ms King said Alcoa was investigating recycling solutions for other rubber products, including end-of-life conveyor belts, as well as looking at opportunities to use the crumbed rubber product at Alcoa facilities.

“We are considering opportunities to use some of the rubber crumb from Tyrecycle in roadworks around our operations,” she said.

“Doing so would represent a great outcome, with our own tyres being recycled into rubber crumb and repurposed within our own operations.”