New roads and sporting grounds around Australia will soon be laid with the tyres collected from Bill and Jaime Cox’s Longford farm.
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The old tyres have found new usefulness thanks to a recycling program sponsored by the Tasmanian Conservation Trust.
The Cox’s collected 320 tyres from their paddocks, which Bill said is not at all unusual for a typical property.
We’re very excited to know that they’re going to be recycled into products that the community can use.
- Bill Cox
“The tyres were mostly bought by people who have long since left this property,” he said. “They were all in various deposits on the farm.
“Some people use them for putting over silage pits to stop the plastic blowing away, and they also use them around the edges of dams to stop erosion.
“Many people are happy to put them on your farm too, because it saves them having to take them to a tip.
“They’ve crept up on us over the last few decades, and now’s a chance to let them go.
“Ultimately, they are ugly, and they’re not environmentally friendly. We’re very excited to know that they’re going to be recycled into products that the community can use.”
The tyres are collected by Barwicks Landscape Supplies and taken to their facility at Brighton, near Hobart, where they are coarsely shredded.
They are then sent to Tyrecycle's recycling facility in Melbourne.
The steel is removed and recycled, and the rubber is made into a range of projects including fuel pellets, incorporated into asphalt, and sports and playground surfaces.
The disposal of the tyres is paid for by the Tasmanian Conservation Trust through a grant from the Northern Tasmanian Waste Strategy Group.
Barwicks Landscape Supplies and Tyrecycle also provide a discounted price for collection to the TCT.
In the case of the Cox’s, the tyres were clean and ready to go by the time the collection truck arrived.
“I spent about four half-days cleaning them, we got a lot of sludge and gravel out of them – and quite a few redback spiders,” said Mr Cox.
So far, 1540 car and truck tyres – about 12 tonnes - have been collected for recycling through the program.
The TCT’s grant has been exhausted but they encourage people to report tyres, with an option for anonymous reporting, at tastyrecleanup.com.
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Frances Vinall
Frances Vinall is a journalist at The Examiner, Launceston. Contact her at frances.vinall@examiner.com.au
Frances Vinall is a journalist at The Examiner, Launceston. Contact her at frances.vinall@examiner.com.au
