Large industrial tyres to be recycled with water jets

Water jet firm Aquablast, which is based in Great Yarmouth, is planning to construct a plant – the location of which is not yet disclosed – which uses high pressure water jets to remove tyre rubber from the reinforcing steel in “earthmover” tyres.

By separating material which was previously hard to recycle the new system allows all the components to be recycled, down to the water that is used in the jets.

The move will follow the development of a pilot plant for which Aquablast has received financial support from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

Donald Blair, managing director of Aquablast, said: “Construction of a pilot process specifically to deal with larger tyres such as earthmover and the bigger agricultural sizes will address a pressing disposal problem and will lead to the development of a large scale facility in 2008.”

He added: “We are delighted that our bid for WRAP's capital support funding was successful. The WRAP contribution to this project, both in terms of financial support and advisory input, will make a big difference.”

Support

Under the WRAP support scheme for waste tyres, which was unveiled last week, two further companies were also selected for capital grants to help pay for new tyre reprocessing facilities.

New firm Bristol Tyre Shredding has received support for a shredding machine and ancillary equipment to process tyres on an existing site run by Western Tyres in Avonmouth.

Hackney-based waste firm McGrath Bros, which earlier this month received WRAP support to develop its wood waste recycling facilities (see letsrecycle.com story) has also received funding.

The UK has to dispose of 48 million used tyres every year. Pressure to divert the tyres to landfill has been increased since whole and shredded tyres were banned from UK landfill last year (see letsrecycle.com story).

Steve Waite, project manager for tyres at WRAP, said: “The funding of the projects will play a part in helping to increase the UK's tyre reprocessing capacity and recycle a portion of the high tonnage of used tyres produced in the UK each year.”