Port Hedland is the home of Australia’s first OTR mining tyre recycling centre, owner and host company Tyrecycle announced last week.
The facility, purpose built for the sector, will be able to recycle end-of-life tyres from across the Pilbara at the rate of more than 30,000 tonnes annually, providing an efficient mine-to-processing service, and enhancing sustainability credentials for operators – as the traditional method has been tyre burial.
Tyrecycle Chief Executive Officer Jim Fairweather said the centre, with its home in a busy mining area, will make it easier than ever to optimize sustainability for customers with tyres as well as conveyor belts.
“As a market leader we are proud to see this first facility of its kind in the country up and running, revolutionising OTR mining tyre recycling will ensure that these massive tyres are no longer seen as a disposal challenge but instead a resource for the achievement of better sustainable outcomes,” he said.
“Transporting end-of-life OTR mining tyres can be a challenge, which is why it was really important that we base this new facility as close to the source of the waste as we can. It’s been a five-year journey to get to this point, which is a great step forward for Port Hedland, the biggest export terminal in the world.”
Fairweather said that mining companies recognised the importance of managing their waste streams responsibly, making the decision to build even easier.
“They know that responsible management of end-of-life tyres is an important part of best practice operations, this new facility means burying these tyres in pit, will soon be a thing of the past. The mining sector has been eager for a solution to end-of-life OTR mining tyre management, and with the establishment of this new facility, Tyrecycle is providing them that solution.”
The company reports they’re collecting OTR tyres at 10%, while mining tyres are only being collected at 1%, calling the difference a “significant shortfall” that the market needs to address.
“There’s 130,000 tonnes of OTR mining tyres generated every year in Australia and 50,000 tonnes of that is generated in the Pilbara, so if you’re going to build a plant to process these tyres anywhere around the country, you put it in Port Hedland,” Fairweather pointed out.
OTR mining tyres will be pre-processed at the Port Hedland facility before being sent to Tyrecycle’s facility in East Rockingham (south of Perth).
Tyrecycle’s East Rockingham site is Australia’s largest and most versatile tyre recycling operation, where OTR mining tyres will be processed into a wide range of products, including crumb rubber, which is used in road development, and tyre derived fuel, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by displacing coal as an energy source.
Source: Tyrecycle