Perth company CTS Tyre Recycling has added to its management ranks and expanded its links with industry associations as it moves forward with its plans to reshape the options for disposal of end-of-life tyres in Western Australia.

The company is part of the wider Cometti Group , a family-owned business with more than 40 years of experience in the tyre industry.

The business began as Cometti Tyres in 1984 and rapidly built a reputation as not only a supplier of tyres but also as a service provider to major fleet operators.

The initial business evolved into Complete Tyre Solutions , which today has 13 branches across WA, South Australia and the Northern Territory, providing 24/7 repair and breakdown service to more than 800 clients.

Managing director Leigh Cometti saw the opportunity to expand into recycling of end-of-life tyres with a focus on some of the large Off The Road tyres used across the agricultural, mining and mining services sectors.

It’s estimated that more than 90% of the larger OTR tyres in use in WA currently go to landfill. The largest landfill disposals occur across the Pilbara region where tyres are frequently buried in pits left after excavation.

“That’s a massive waste of materials that can easily be repurposed,” says Mr Cometti.

The company has invested more than $40-million in a state-of-the-art recycling facility at Neerabup, north of Perth and is already producing rubber crumb from end-of-life tyres.

The rubber crumb is widely used as a binder in road surfacing in both spray seal and asphalt applications, substituting for bitumen binder. Crumb rubber comprises an average of 15% of the mix in such applications. Using crumb rubber reduces tyre noise, improves resistance to cracking and rutting, and uses significantly less paving material, resulting in longer-lasting roads.

“It can also be used in a wide range of other applications, including soft-fall surfaces for children’s playgrounds, athletics tracks, and in equine competition surfaces. It doesn’t have to go to waste,” says Mr Cometti.

“To date, there has been no imperative for the large mining companies to recycle their OTR tyres, but we know there is mounting pressure in terms of ESG responsibility to ensure the rubber and steel in those tyres finds another use.”

The new Neerabup facility will also remanufacture those tyres, and all other sizes of tyres, into new high value products such as acoustic underlay, gym matting, load restraint matting, and equine and farm matting.

The CTS Tyre Recycling business has also affiliated with the Australian Tyre Recyclers Association (ATRA) and the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) , and has most recently become a member of The Waste and Recycling Industry Association of WA (WRIWA), which recently called on the incoming state government to set strong policy guidelines that will assist industry to achieve the objectives of the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030.

A specific element of the call by WRIWA was for a ban on the landfill disposal of tyres in the mining industry. The tyres weigh as much as five tonnes each. The rubber can be turned to rubber crumb, and the steel in the tyres is recovered and is instantly recyclable.

“We don’t expect there is any prospect of recovering the many thousands of tyres that have already been buried,” says Mr Cometti. “However we believe that, with encouragement from government and their own shareholders, the mining companies could be persuaded to return future EOLTs to Perth on the same road trains (purpose-designed to carry OTR tyres) that carry them to their sites.”

In addition to reducing landfill disposal, the recycling initiatives will reduce the need for further virgin product, a key element of moves towards a sustainable circular economy for one of the world’s most used circular products.

About CTS Tyre Recycling’s Neerabup facility

The Neerabup project, valued at more than $40-million, is a state-of-the-art recycling plant that processes waste tyres into crumb rubber, tyre derived products, reusable high tensile steel wire and reusable textile.

The new facility, supported by grants from the Western Australian and Commonwealth governments, is the first in Australia capable of processing tyres of all sizes at one site, from small garden tyres to the largest 63-inch (rim size) mining haul truck tyres.

Initial planned throughput was 30,000 tonnes per annum of end-of-life tyres diverted from landfill, however we are now expecting to process up to 60,000 tonnes per annum.

With the support of a further joint federal and state government grant, CTS Tyre Recycling has committed to a major additional capability, with the installation of a remanufacturing line.

It features best practices in tyre shredding and rubber product moulding technology, producing a range of remanufactured high-value rubber products.

See more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transforming-end-of-life-tyre-disposal-ctstr-ewajc