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Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) has published its 2022/23 Annual Report. The annual report showcases some of the major achievements of Australia's Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme and how it must pave the way for a circular economy for end-of-life tires. In brief, Australia’s major achievements are:

Tyre Stewardship Australia reports that in 2019 it engaged Randell Environmental Consulting in association with Brock Baker Environmental Consulting to complete an analysis of the consumption and fate of mining industry Off-The-Road tyres. This analysis followed the completion of the report commissioned by Tyre Stewardship Australia titled End-Of-Life Tyres Supply Chain and Fate Analysis (REC 2019) by Randell Environmental Consulting.

Lina Goodman, CEO of Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA), expresses frustration over the lack of progress in tyre recycling initiatives. Despite efforts to get industry associations, retailers, and auto brands on board, there's still resistance, and the recycling rate for used car, bus, and truck tyres has dropped from 90% in 2019-20 to 80% in the past year. TSA faces challenges with freeloaders and illegal dumping, impacting legitimate recyclers. Goodman emphasizes the need for regulatory support to address these issues, urging all tyre importers to contribute to a recycling scheme and preventing businesses from engaging with rogue operators.

TSA reports that ReMade in QLD (ReMiQ) funding is available for Queensland’s manufacturing industry to reduce waste and remanufacture recycled materials. A new 10 million for ReMiQ to support local manufacturers in Queensland to utilise waste and recycled material streams to develop new products, grow their businesses and drive better environmental and economic outcomes. Eligible manufacturers and recyclers can access matched grant funding of between $50,000 and $2.5 million for projects that increase the reuse of existing recycled material streams in manufacturing or enable diversification to remanufacture new waste streams.

According to ABC News, an Albury business, Carbon MF Pty Ltd, and its director, Mark Fair, were fined nearly $600,000 by the Land and Environment Court for unlawfully accumulating 28,000 end-of-life tyres near Albury Airport. Court records revealed that Carbon MF accepted payment to receive around 22,000 4WD tyres, 45,000 car tyres, and 12,000 truck tyres but failed to comply with an Environment Protection Authority (EPA) clean-up notice. The EPA emphasized the fire hazard these stockpiled tyres posed, highlighting the potential risk to residents and air traffic. Carbon MF Pty Ltd, now in liquidation, faces consequences for environmental negligence.

The global scrap tire problem has urged a number of business and researchers to seek advancement of circular economy. One of the global institutions that showed their concern with the issue is the Australian Road Research Board. It assessed on what level the sustainability is right now, and it looked at uptake of innovative recycled materials, including end-of-life rubber materials, in roads.

The Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) led one of Australia’s largest multi-council projects, incorporating rubber from end-of-life tires into bitumen to enhance asphalt durability, performance, and sustainability. Conducted by RMIT University, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, titled "Life Cycle Assessment and Potential Environmental Benefits of Crumb Rubber Asphalt using Field Data," revealed that recycled rubber extends pavement life, reduces raw material demand, and lowers environmental impacts.

In an Australian first, Ararat Rural City Council has tested new road sealing technology using a circular road solution to enhance road efficiency within the community. This innovative method uses recycled tire rubber as a modifier for bitumen binder and a substitute for traditional aggregates, significantly advancing sustainable road construction practices. This approach could increase the use of waste tires on rural roads by tenfold.

The Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) has Congratulated Puma Bitumen Australia on winning the Innovation Award in the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association QLD 2020 Industry awards. TSA lauded Puma Bitumen for its great product, strong leadership and innovative work and mentioned it is funding with Puma to upgrade plant and facilities around Australia to supply increased volumes and enhanced crumb rubber products to road consumers nationally. Puma Bitumen Australia’s team recently won the Innovation award in the AAPA Queensland 2020 Industry awards. The invention of OLEXOCRUMB®, which incorporates recycled tyre rubber in a high performance bituminous road binder received the honour from the judging panel.