BURNING RUBBER

Ever wondered what happens to your old tyres? It’s estimated we as a country discard five million a year. Until now, there has been no real use for end-of-life tyres and the high cost of disposing of them often leads to illegal dumping and large stockpiles.

In what is hoped to be the first of many large-scale projects, upwards of three million end-of-life tyres will be given one final use as fuel for the Portland cement plant in Whangarei, which has just undergone a full upgrade. The plant is reducing its carbon emissions by 13,000 tonnes a year by replacing 15 per cent of its coal use with end-oflife tyres instead. These are burned at 1400°C and the remains are then incorporated in the cement. An industry-led working group, Tyrewise, is working towards the introduction of a nationwide regulated product stewardship scheme to deal with the problem, which the government highlighted, and believes the plant to be key to its success.

“It’s great to see large-scale solutions for ELTs emerging as we begin the process of how to implement the scheme. We look forward to seeing more innovation in the near future,” says Tyrewise Project Manager Adele Rose.