Report: Plan to build tire recycling plant in NZ

Auckland, New Zealand – Recycling company EcoVersion is planning to introduce a new tire-recycling plant which it says will “significantly reduce the number of tires that go to landfill or are exported from New Zealand”.

According to a news report by New Zealand-based Voxy news website, Ecoversion Director, Angela Merrie said that they are in the final stages of purchasing the innovative plant from China, deposits have been paid and the technology secured.

The plant is to be fully operational by the end of the year.

Ecoversion’s new plant will process used tires to create de-vulcanised rubber sheets and bitumen modifiers.

Current recycling processes focus on producing crumb rubber but the new technology, said Merrie, takes recycling a step further.

"The de-vulcanised rubber from our new waste plant will be used for other rubber products such as tire retreading, providing a full closed loop tire recycling opportunity and the bitumen modifiers will provide more stable, safer roading with increased longevity," Merrie said.

"The new plant will have the capacity to process 10,000 tonnes annually in the first stage of the development and will be expanded to 40,000 tons of processing capacity, subject to the availability of end-of-life tires,” said the report.Currently, around 60,000 tonnes of tires are disposed of each year in NZ.