Burning rubber for profits
GROUP RECYCLES MOUNTAINS OF TRUCK TYRES AND USE EVERY SCRAP OF WASTE Hammarsdale plant quadrupled employment and doubled output.
Ongoing investment and growth at Mathe Group tyre recycler, showed it is possible to shrink the evergrowing mountain of truck tyres that are threatening to become a national environmental hazard, while also creating a profitable business.
The Hammarsdale plant, which has quadrupled employment and more than doubled output since coming on stream in 2016, proved that recycling of tyres was not only sustainable but could evolve into a growth industry, said Dr Mehran Zarrebini, head of British investment group PFE International, one of the major shareholders in Mathe Group.
SA’s tyre recycling initiative, which started with the creation of the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa) in 2012, had been a long journey with challenges, but the evolution of the group should offer many critics food for thought, he said.
It has been said that recycling of tyres was not sustainable because of limited demand for rubber crumb and substantial set-up costs. Initially, small companies using antiquated equipment struggled to compete with imported subsidised products.
The group started producing rubber crumb in limited quantities from a small factory in New Germany, Durban, in 2012.
A joint venture followed. This was intended to strengthen vertical integration and ensure the supply of rubber crumb for Van Dyck Floors – and saw it move to a new R20-million processing facility in Hammarsdale, producing 65 000 tyres during the first year.
The group has since expanded its customer base to the point where Van Dyck accounts for only 15% of offtake, Zarrebini said.
The liquidation of Redisa last year had not impacted the group in any way. There is a steady stream of used tyres with daily deliveries of used truck tyres from depots operated by the Waste Management Bureau, which is responsible for tyre recycling until a new recycling plan is actioned by the department of Environmental Affairs. He said the company would continue to invest in new equipment to increase output.
A shredder was recently brought in from Australia and will significantly increase output – 30 to 40 tons of used truck tyres are consumed by the group per day. Each month, the Hammarsdale factory produces approximately 600 tons of rubber crumb.
Of this, 15% goes to the Van Dyck Floors factory in Prospecton; 35% is used for foundations for sports fields using artificial grass in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana and the Congo; while 50% is purchased by the roads industry as a key component in modified bitumen for road resurfacing.
Last year, more than 150 000 used truck tyres were recycled, and Zarrebini is confident it will pass the 200 000 mark during 2018.
Demand for the rubber crumb is growing and Zarrebini said that the plant was likely to run into capacity constraints soon.
“We are investigating the introduction of a new line that will not only increase output but give us more flexibility. We can move from recycling standard truck tyres to car tyres and truck tyres of different sizes. This will not only increase capacity, but allow us to use a far broader spectrum of waste material,” he said.
Some growth areas include road resurfacing, the manufacture of rubber-based paving and flooring products and sporting fields.
Zarrebini said new products using rubber crumb would be developed as a result of ongoing research into industrial applications by tertiary institutions such as Stellenbosch University and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.
With the rigorous testing requirements of manufacturers using rubber crumb for the manufacture of road surfaces and coatings, as well as the stringent specifications of sporting bodies such as Fifa, all products meet world class standards.
As a volume-driven business, tyre recycling relied on improving efficiencies as well as capacity – especially when it came to usage of electricity.
“Because this is a volume-driven business, we use a lot of electricity. The key to reducing the amount of electricity consumed is to make the whole process more efficient and to increase the amount of rubber crumb produced per kilowatt hour.
“We are constantly working at bettering the process and on training and upskilling people,” Zarrebini said.
The majority of employees are sourced from the immediate Hammarsdale area where unemployment levels are high.
Since the Hammarsdale plant was commissioned, Mathe Group has increased its workforce from 15 to 50 people.
The plant already runs for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and Zarrebini said future investment in equipment would create additional jobs.
Approximately 15% to 20% of each 68kg truck tyre comprises hi-tensile steel which is removed using magnets. It is manually loaded into large bags which are placed in shipping containers for export to Korea and Australia.