The Green Distillation Technologies recycling plant  planned for Longford  will fully recycle up to 658,000 end-of-life tyres from cars and trucks each year if built.

It would be Tasmania’s only recycling facility and address stockpile issues held by people such as tyre recycler Tim Chugg.

In August 2013, Mr Chugg applied to allow the development of a GDT plant at a Sprent Street property at Campbell Town.

Although permission was granted, the development was abandoned due to prohibitive costs surrounding the site’s position over an aquifer.

Mr Chugg said the construction of the Longford plant would finally provide an outlet to recycle the 1.3 million tyres he had stored at a site nearby.

The amassed tyres are a result of about three years of stockpiling, sent to the temporary location after a fire destroyed Mr Chugg’s previous base at Longford in 2012.

‘‘What this [development] does is  shore  up the industry in the state,’’ he said.

The processing plant would  superheat  tyres,   causing the rubber to melt down into an oil usable for refinement into petrol or diesel.