Australian Tire Recycling Association (ATRA) announced findings of a new report called “Carbon Value Proposition, Resource Recovery using Tyre Derived Fuels”. The report states that substituting black coal with tire-derived fuel (TDF) can lower emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere by 1.05 tons.

Robert Kelman, ATRA’s executive officer, says that is fairly good news given that the bulk of end-of-life passenger and truck tires in Australia are used as TDF and are exported to various industrial facilities (e.g. paper manufacturing plants or cement kilns) in Japan or South Korea. Mr. Kolman adds that this alternative fuel could be used to help limit domestic green house gas emissions added that there is no shortage of scrap passenger and truck tires in Australia. TDF is peculiar of a very high calorific value which makes it a profoundly attractive fuel all over the world. Mr. Kolman is convinced that ultimately tire-derived fuel will become eligible for low emission credits and energy efficiency in Australia.

Jim Fairweather, CEO of Tyrecycle – Australia’s leading tire recycler, asserts that using TDF Australia can address a challenging problem of growing amount of waste, provided that TDF is cheaper than coal and it causes less harm to environment due to lower carbon emissions. Members of ATRA export some 145,000 tons of tire-derived fuel per annum and this number can increase if domestic market becomes stronger and if more access is provided to tires on mining sites and other stockpiles.

95% of Australia’s tire recycling and the bulk of crumb rubber production for sports fields, playgrounds and civil engineering are covered by ATRA’s members. Every year, Australia produces some 50 million used tires and almost half of them – 23 million – are available for recycling. Members of ATRA process some 20.5 million of that number, whereas the remainder is kept at stockpiles: baled and ready for shipment. In fact, bales cause biosecurity and environmental risks for receiving countries. OTR tires are also kept within the country. In contrast to any other type of ELT, mining tires are usually buried onsite. However, there are numerous opportunities for them to be reprocessed.

Article by Tyre Press.