by Luke Voogt
Geelong could become home to a new tyre-recycling plant as Federal Government introduces a ban on exporting end-of-life tyres, an Australia-wide company has announced.
Green Distillation Technologies had earmarked Geelong for the plant and explored several sites in the city, according to its chief operating officer Trevor Bayley.
“We have explored potential sites and studied the catchment area where we would obtain supplies of old tyres,” he said.
“(We) are confident that we can easily generate sufficient tyres to justify the plant that will require a mix of 19,000 tonnes a year.”
The plant, operating 24/7, would create about 15 jobs, mostly unskilled labour, plus further employment during construction and in resulting supply chains, Mr Bayley said.
The plant would help fill a “massive gap” in Australia’s tyre recycling capacity following the government ban coming into effect by late 2021, he said.
“We can step in to the fill the gap as we have world-first Australian-developed technology that can recycle old tyres into valuable oil, carbon and steel, and the Geelong plant could contribute to this.”
A typical 10kg car tyre will yield 4L of oil, 4kg of carbon and 2kg of steel, with much larger amounts for truck tyres, according to Mr Bayley.
The company had a five-year plan for seven plants across Australia to recycle 30 per cent of the 25 million end-of-life tyres Australia generates each year, Mr Bayley said.
“As well as Geelong, we have also explored potential sites in Wagga, Elizabeth, Meekatharra and Gladstone.”
Each plant required $12 million to reach “full operational status”, Mr Bayley said.
The company had received Federal Government grants for the project but still needed to secure further investment, he said.
The company was planning to bring its existing plant in country NSW “up to full production in 12 months” while its planned Toowoomba facility had received all required government approvals, Mr Bayley said.
The company had secured an agreement with Southern Oil, while carbon black from recycled tyres had “huge potential” for sale, he said.
Mr Bayley said carbon black was “one of the world’s most widely-used chemical building blocks” in products including plastic, paints, water filtration, ink, paint, electrodes, lipstick and toothpaste.
