Australian End-Of-Life Tyre Study

Australia’s House of Representatives has published its inquiry into the national tyre industry, finding 740,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres consumed in 2023–24 and calling for higher-value recovery across the country.

A Growing Waste Stream

The report from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science puts a hard number on the sector’s raw feedstock: Australians consumed roughly 740,000 tonnes of tyres in 2023–24 — about 20 million passenger tyres, 8.5 million truck and bus tyres and 750,000 off-the-road tyres. That is up from 645,000 tonnes in 2019–20, and the committee expects the stream to keep growing with the vehicle fleet.

Only 26 Percent Stays in the Material Loop

Although a 66 percent recovery rate is reported for end-of-life tyres, the inquiry found that only about 26 percent actually stays in material loops through reuse, retreading and recycling. Roughly 40 percent is exported as tyre-derived fuel — mostly to kilns in Asia — where the rubber is combusted and its material value destroyed. The committee describes that as an economic and environmental loss for a commodity that could feed domestic industries instead.

Pyrolysis Named as a Higher-Value Route

The report identifies tyre pyrolysis as a promising higher-value pathway, producing three outputs from every waste tyre: steel scrap, a carbon char that can be processed into recovered carbon black, and pyrolysis oil usable in transport, petrochemical and plastics applications, including marine fuel co-processing. It notes that pyrolysis is progressing in Australia but is held back by market acceptance and product-quality barriers — precisely the barriers that proven rCB specifications and offtake arrangements exist to remove.

Twelve Recommendations

The inquiry’s twelve recommendations run from a nationally harmonised regulatory framework for end-of-life tyres (Recommendation 1) to a consistent framework for off-the-road tyres that prioritises recovery, reuse and recycling (Recommendation 2), national specifications and procurement settings to grow domestic demand for crumb rubber in road infrastructure (Recommendation 9), and expanded industry–university–CSIRO collaboration to commercialise emerging recovery technologies (Recommendation 12). Together they signal federal attention — and future procurement demand — for domestic tyre recycling capacity.

Learn More:

• Feasibility studies for tyre pyrolysis and rCB projects
• Klean’s Australia tyre pyrolysis project
• Recovered carbon black production from tyre pyrolysis carbon char
• Download the full Australian Government tyre industry inquiry report (PDF)

Want the report sent to you with a 1-page Klean summary? Contact us and we’ll have it in your inbox.

The Bankable Way to Deliver the Inquiry’s Recommendations

The inquiry’s twelve recommendations put domestic high-value tyre recovery on the federal agenda, but the practical question is whether the new capacity actually meets its contracted output. Klean’s KBR division engineers and builds tire pyrolysis and rCB plants turnkey with performance guarantees: output, yield and product specification are contractual, and the technology risk sits with Klean — not with the operator or the lenders.

That record is proven at commercial scale, not pilot scale: an operating commercial-scale recovered carbon black plant in Poland, KBR holding Klean’s proprietary TyreNova technology in its own IP portfolio, and thirty-plus years of delivering commercial pyrolysis plants. And you do not have to buy a Klean plant to access the technology — anyone can license it.

Want the numbers on a 100% bankable, performance-guaranteed plant for the Australian market?

Contact Klean Industries » GO.