Source: Radio New Zealand
Adele Rose, the CEO of 3R Group that manages the Tyrewise Scheme. Supplied
The equivalent of 4.8 million rubber car tyres have been collected in the first year of a recycle scheme.
Tyrewise is governed by a charitable trust and funded by the fee that is charged on the sale of all new regulated tyres in Aotearoa.
There are now 86 public collection points around the motu.
Tyrewise said a year into the scheme illegal dumping of tyres has been slashed, along with the number of tyres going to landfill.
Adele Rose, the CEO of 3R Group that manages the Tyrewise Scheme, told Checkpoint the number of tyres recycled had continued to steadily tick up, today reaching close to five million.
Currently, around half of the recycled tyres remain within the country.
“About half of them go to Golden Bay for use as an alternative to coal and their cement production.”
While rubber being burnt is not usually seen as a sustainable method, Rose said a unique process is used at Golden Bay to ensure it is clean.
“It’s actually a really unique method of combustion. It’s called hot disc and it actually literally as it sounds, it’s two very hot discs that heat up the tyres.
“There’s also clinker that’s formed as a result of the tyres being combusted and that clinker goes in as an add mixture into the production of cement and that’s what enables Golden Base cement to produce their low carbon cement product.”
The tyres are used in low carbon cement products. Supplied
She said there is rigourous air quality testing to ensure that it is a clean burning method.
The remainder of the recycled tyres are then shipped offshore.
“Then there is about 20,000 tonnes which are exported offshore to verified markets… for a whole range of things like rubber for matting and various other products like that.”
Rose hopes that the number of tyres being recycled onshore would increase over the coming years.
“The scheme has only been going for a year and you can’t magically produce the domestic market within one year,” she said.
“That volume will be reducing as our market in New Zealand can utilise the rubber.”
The trust is currently focusing on using the recycled tyres for rubber roading.
“That will take about 18,000 tonnes of tyre crumb so you can see there’s a really awesome balance there, where we can stimulate your own market, we can reduce the amount that’s been exported.”
Rose said construction is another key area they hope to use the recycled rubber in.
“Anything you can imagine that has rubber in it, like engineered materials, building materials, paved materials.”
Tyrewise is aiming to have 80 percent of tyres transformed into products that can stay in New Zealand by 2028.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
