TyreGenics opens £4 m tyre recycling plant in Wales

Baglan, Wales -- TyreGenics has opened its £4 million tyre recycling facility in Wales - the first of its kind in northern Europe.

According to the company's 25 July statement, the state-of-the-art plant at Baglan, near Port Talbot, will granulate some four million used tyres each year into rubber crumb, making Wales a leader in automotive recycling initiatives.

The facility, which is backed by a Welsh European Financial Office grant, will handle 80 tonnes of tyres a day and already has contracts in place to sell 70 percent of production.

The project marks an important inward investment achievement for Neath Port Talbot Borough Council, said the statement, and it will put Wales at the forefront of environmental technology as well as create 30 new jobs.

“We need to encourage an holistic approach to handling and processing waste of all types. The addition of this plant to Credential Environmental's network of collection, chipping and processing facilities, allows us to take waste tyres from the point of disposal, all the way through to them becoming a useful product again. This means we can ensure the integrity of the process and make it as green as possible,” said Andy Hinton, chairman of TyreGenics and Credential Environmental, in the 25 July statement.

TyreGenics said that the "innovative" process uses liquid nitrogen to freeze shreds of tyre to below -80?C, at which point they become brittle, then mechanical hammers smash the rubber into tiny pieces known as crumb. The product has a number of uses, including the production of artificial sports pitches, insulation products and rubber flooring.

TyreGenics is a joint venture between majority shareholder Credential Environmental, the UK market leader in recycling used tyres; industrial gases expert BOC; world-leading Canadian based artificial sports pitch business FieldTurf Tarkett and Canadian cryogenic plant manufacturer RTI Cryogenics Inc.

Picture: Nick Wyatt, Simon Baggott and Andy Hinton at the launch of the new plant

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