Sustainable Tyre Recycling Australia

Sustainable Tyre Recycling Australia has launched, uniting recyclers, processors, collectors and tyre manufacturers under one voice as the federal tyre inquiry reaches its final stage.

A New Industry Voice at a Critical Moment

The newly formed association, announced on 8 October 2026, is dedicated to representing and supporting Australia’s tyre recycling and resource recovery sector. Its stated mission covers three fronts: advocating for robust and sustainable regulatory frameworks, combating illegal dumping, and — the commercial heart of the matter — expanding high-value commercial markets for recycled rubber products. The launch comes as the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science inquiry into the tyre industry is expected to publish its report imminently.

The Stewardship Debate

STRA spokesperson Greg Turnbull made the association’s position clear at launch: STRA was formed in part to push back against Tyre Stewardship Australia’s campaign for a mandatory product stewardship scheme. Turnbull argues that mandatory stewardship would force small tyre recyclers to close, drop recycling rates, and worsen environmental outcomes — pointing to a claimed 89 percent recovery rate for passenger and truck-and-bus tyres in Australia. That figure sits in tension with the government inquiry’s own findings, which distinguish broad recovery from the far smaller share that actually stays in material loops: most recovered tyres currently end up as fuel, not raw material. Whether a tyre is merely recovered or genuinely recycled is the question that will dominate Australia’s waste policy debate this year.

Off-The-Road Tyres: The Weakest Link

The association concedes that the weakest segment of Australian recycling is off-the-road (OTR) tyres, and takes the position that landfill disposal of waste tyres and in-pit disposal of mining tyres must be banned. It also describes tyre recycling as a fragile ecosystem: any new commercial hurdles or added costs risk pushing recyclers out of the market, reducing competition and driving up the cost of recovering waste tyres.

What It Means for High-Value Recovery

For investors and operators, the launch is a signal that Australia’s end-of-life tyre sector is consolidating around one shared goal: moving tyres from low-value recovery toward saleable materials. STRA’s call for high-value commercial markets is the policy language for exactly what tyre pyrolysis and rCB production deliver — spec-grade recovered carbon black, pyrolysis oil and clean steel scrap, instead of crumb rubber or combustion. The association has opened founding membership to recyclers, scrap tyre haulers, equipment suppliers and downstream manufacturers, giving the high-value side of the value chain a direct seat at the table.

Learn More:

• Feasibility studies for tyre pyrolysis and rCB projects
• Klean’s Australian tyre pyrolysis project
• Recovered carbon black: the high-value material STRA wants to commercialise
• The Australian government tyre industry inquiry: key findings and recommendations

Enter a Consolidating Market without Carrying the Technology Risk

STRA itself describes the tyre recycling sector as a fragile ecosystem, and in a market like that, technology risk is what kills new entrants first. The Klean and KBR releationship exists to remove it: turnkey tire pyrolysis and rCB plants delivered with performance guarantees, so output and product specification are contractual, not aspirational. That is 100% bankable for the financiers and zero technology risk for the operator.

The references are commercial scale: an operating commercial-scale recovered carbon black plants, plants built and commissioned across multiple countries, and KBR holding Klean’s TyreNova technology in its own IP portfolio. Prefer to build your own? The same technology is available to anyone on a license basis.

Want a feasibility plus license or turnkey proposal for the Australian market?

Contact Klean Industries » GO.