Australia sitting on unused goldmine of old gigantic tyres

Among the largest tyres ever manufactured, they help extract and haul billions of dollars of Australian resources.

But recyclers say the huge amount of rubber discarded by mining companies is its own kind of buried treasure.

For decades, the mining industry has been legally allowed to bury, stockpile, or send to landfill more than 100,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres every year.

It is in sharp contrast to the rest of the tyre market, which collects about 96 per cent of passenger and commercial tyres for recycling, according to the Australian Tyre Recyclers Association (ATRA).

ATRA executive officer Robert Kelmen said just two per cent of off-the-road (OTR) mining tyres were recovered.

"These are very big mining tyres. They might be four, five, six tonnes," Mr Kelmen said.

"That is a lot of rubber and a lot of rubber that's really being sought out now internationally."

Dip in rubber production

Long argued on environmental grounds, a new report is mounting the economic case for OTC tyre recycling.

ATRA found up to $200 million of raw, natural rubber was being buried annually on mine sites.

That dollar figure is expected to climb as global rubber production lags behind demand.

"There are risks to virgin rubber production, which is essential for these mining tyres," Mr Kelman said.

"The mining industry should be a part of shoring up the production of new tyres, getting that material off site, [and] getting it into the recovery markets."

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries forecasts a natural rubber shortfall of 317,000 tonnes in 2026, citing erratic weather across tropical forest plantations in south-east Asia.

Miles Kenney-Lazar, a rubber expert at the University of Melbourne, said the commodity often cycled through highs and lows, but now other factors were affecting production.

"More recently, there's a lot of environmental changes that are impacting rubber plantations, like flooding and climate change," he said.

Meanwhile, the need for the material has only grown alongside electric vehicles, which tend to be heavier and wear through rubber more quickly.

"If better systems can be put in place to ensure those tyres can efficiently be recycled and put on the market, then I don't see why … mining companies or others wouldn't want to take advantage," Dr Kenney-Lazar said.

Large public investment

The West Australian and Commonwealth governments have collectively invested $20.7 million into six tyre recycling infrastructure projects under the Recycling Modernisation Fund, while a further $62 million has been kicked in by industry.

One of those facilities was built by Tyrecycle in WA's Pilbara region — home to 49 per cent of the nation's mining tyres.

But 18 months after opening for business in Port Hedland, the plant is processing a fraction of its 30,000 tonne capacity.

"It has been slow going, to be honest," company spokesperson Ashley Battilana said.

"We can do 30,000 tonnes easily and, with some more infrastructure put in there, we could easily go a bit more, but currently we're only doing 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes per annum."

Mr Battilana called on lawmakers to tighten regulations and force companies to face the up-front costs of recycling.

"The government's undermining the tyre recycling industry by allowing the burial of tyres," he said.

"The infrastructure is there to process these tyres. The offtake is there as well, both domestically and internationally.

"It's just the incoming feedstock to keep these plants busy."

Industry says logistics challenges remain

Western Australia's Chamber of Minerals and Energy said the sector aimed to minimise waste "wherever feasible."

Policy and advocacy director Anita Logiudice pointed to existing partnerships with tyre recyclers to produce crumb for road bitumen.

"However, some barriers remain," she said.

"These include logistical challenges associated with transporting OTR tyres from remote mines to the nearest recycling plant, as well as the relatively small market for crumb rubber in WA."

Earlier this year, a parliamentary inquiry made 12 recommendations to the federal government, including the staged, legislated reduction of onsite burial for OTR tyres over the next five years.

A spokesperson for Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres said the government was still considering its response.