Tyre Stewardship Australia, a non-profit organisation run by the tyre industry, said the growth in EV and SUV sales added thousands of tonnes more weight onto millions of tyres each year.

“Every time a consumer chooses a large or electric vehicle, they’re essentially choosing heavier tyres,” Goodman said. “With 20 million passenger tyres consumed annually, even small increases in individual tyre weight create massive system-wide impacts.”

In addition to heavier tyres becoming more prevalent, the overall consumption of passenger tyres rose with Australia’s population, from 645,000 tonnes of tyres consumed in 2019-20 to about 740,000 tonnes in 2023-24.

Motorists and industry generated 537,000 tonnes of used tyres, including 190,000 tonnes of passenger tyres, 192,000 tonnes of truck and bus tyres, and 155,000 tonnes of off-road, including heavy machinery, tyres.

While most passenger tyres are recycled, the exception is large tyres used in agricultural and mining sectors. Mining tyres can be as large as five tonnes, and the Tyre Stewardship Council says disposal on mining sites is practically free due to exemptions from landfilling requirements and levies that apply to every other sector.

Because of this, and the remoteness of mining sites and inadequate recycling facilities, an estimated 92 per cent of “off-the-road” tyres are buried into pits at mining sites.

West Australian-based CTS Tyre Recycling managing director Leigh Cometti said recycling initiatives to reuse those large tyres had only been in place for the past three or so years.

CTS Tyre Recycling has been accepting mining tyres for recycling for the past two years, recycling the steel and creating “crumbs” that are used in underflooring, playgrounds and as an addition to bitumen in roads.

There had historically been no imperative for mining companies to recycle industrial tyres, Cometti said, but there was now mounting pressure on the sector to ensure rubber and steel from tyres was recycled.

Loading

CTS Recycling is part of the Waste and Recycling Industry Association of WA, which recently called for a statewide ban on the landfill disposal of tyres in the mining industry.

“Largely, consumers with car tyres have been doing the right thing, and have been for quite some time, and there’s opportunities for that to continue to improve,” Cometti said.

“But with those larger tyres, the fact is, the capability in processing facilities and infrastructure hasn’t been available in a sizeable or scalable way to do anything about those tyres.

“That momentum for change is here now.”