Tyres once destined for landfill are being repurposed for use in road paving, artificial turf and kids' playgrounds at Australia's first rubber crumb plant located in the Shoalhaven.
Federal Member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips officially opened the rubber crumb plant at Shoalhaven City Council's West Nowra Recycling and Waste Depot on Thursday September 19.
"I'm really pleased to open this innovative recycling project which contributes to council's circular economy and provides and very practical solution to tyre waste," Mrs Phillips said.
Council received a $514,000 grant, co-funded by the Federal Government's Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) and NSW Government's Waste Less, Recycle More initiative.
"This facility is a fantastic example of the kind of innovation we need to boost recycling in Australia," Mrs Phillips said.
"Not only is this great for the environment by saving used car, truck and machinery tyres from going into landfill, we are also creating a product that is really useful.
"The plant is producing crumbed rubber and mesh powder that is ready for use in local infrastructure projects, including roads as asphalt and bitumen."
The new plant means council can increase the amount of waste rubber materials and regional tyres it recycles from 58 tonnes each year to 160 tonnes, with potential to increase to 270 tonnes per year.
The crumbing technology removes 99 per cent of all contaminants and provides council with an exceptionally high purity product which is attractive to the recycled products market.
Council aims to continue to increase landfill diversion rates in accordance with the NSW Government's target of an 80 per cent average recovery rate from all waste streams by 2030.
As part of this goal, the new rubber crumb plant supplements council's other additional recycling operations including a MICROfactorie which re-manufactures recycled glass sand and textiles into green ceramics, polystyrene recycling, a baling plant for paper, cardboard and plastics and an electrical cable recycling plant which diverts copper and mixed plastic granules from landfill.
Mrs Phillips said the RMF was accelerating Australia's circular economy so that when a product is no longer useful or required for its initial purpose, it is either reused, recycled or remanufactured.
"Projects already announced are expected to increase Australia's annual processing capacity by over 1 million tonnes, and create more than 3,000 ongoing and construction jobs," she said.
"The Shoalhaven rubber crumb plant is one of 43 RMF projects in NSW, with more than $35 million in joint funding between the Australian and NSW Governments.
"On completion, these projects are expected to add 197,000 tonnes of recycling capacity each year, support over 790 ongoing and construction jobs, and see over $122 million invested in recycling infrastructure in the state."
Pictured at the official opening of the Shoalhaven's new rubber crumb plant on Thursday. Federal Member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips; Manager Waste Services, David Lindsay; CEO, Robyn Stevens; EPA Manager Programs, Sam Lewis, EPA Project Officer, Divita Bhalla, Waste Initiatives MD, Peter Smith.
