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Every year, Australia throws away 20 million tyres into landfills – piling up and seeping harmful leachates into the soil and hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. Once a tyre becomes old, brittle, and its treads wear out, car owners usually dump it around their households, collecting moisture and dust.
Piled-up tires become perfect breeding grounds for bacteria, mosquitoes, and diseases. Besides, we consider them a fire hazard that can be difficult to extinguish.
The health and environmental risks around unwanted tyres mean proper disposal should be a priority for residential or commercial properties.
Here are our best-recommended methods to dispose of unwanted tyres in Sydney.
1. Recycling Car Tyres
The most effective way of keeping old tyres away from landfills is recycling them via mechanical and chemical processes. Recycling converts waste tyres into raw materials used to make new products. Here’s a quick walkthrough on tyre recycling processes:
Tyre Collection
First, you must send your old tyres to recycling facilities and collection areas. Most local tyre companies in Sydney also send used tires to recycling facilities. Recycling companies will pay them a few dollars for piles of unwanted tyres.
Shredding and Processing
As the tyres enter the recycling line, the processing plant will shred them into smaller, more workable pieces with an industrial shredder. Reducing their sizes increases the tyres’ surface area and makes them easier to convert to raw materials and fuel sources.
Moreover, tyres can be recycled using two proven systems: Mechanical and Cryogenic recycling processes. In a mechanical system, industrial granulators are calibrated for a specific shredding size, which chips down unwanted tyres at room temperature.
On the other hand, a cryogenic system freezes the tyre rubber to make it brittle and easier to break down into smaller chips. Cryogenic systems usually require liquid nitrogen to freeze tyre-grade rubber.
Tyre Wire Extraction
Tubeless tyres usually come with steel or kevlar lining, reinforcing the rubber for tensile strength. These wires don’t wear out quickly and can be used to manufacture fresh tyres. But to soften unwanted tyres for recycling, you need to extract these wires entirely.
After shedding the tyres and extracting the metal and kevlar wires, the rubber mulch produced from recycling can be used as playground turfs or refined into raw materials.
Final Product
After separating the raw materials from unwanted tyres, recycling plants will pack them and deliver them to manufacturing plants where they can be used. That includes rubber shoe manufacturers, tyre companies, and other factories that require rubber.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the time and luxury to send their tyres directly to recycling plants and actively participate in the tyre recycling process. So what should you do with piles of unwanted tyres?
2. Send it Off to a Local Garage
If you’re looking to get a few bucks off your piles of old tyres, you can sell them to a local tyre shop or garage. Depending on your garage shop, they can exchange your old tyres with vouchers that you can use to save on your next tyre purchase.
3. Donate Old Tyres to Your Local Park
Tyres, as everyone knows, take decades to decompose. Its useful life is about ten years in a city and casual driving pace, but it could take more than 80 years to break down in a landfill.
We suggest donating them to your local zoo or park, where they can repurpose them as planters, stools, and signages. Some zoos even use them as playthings for cubs and animal nurseries.
4. Use Old Tyres for DIY Projects
Unleashing your creativity can be fun if you have the time. Turn your old wheels into a blank canvas and craft them into vintage home decor, a brutalist or industrial accent, or even unique lighting features!
However, DIY projects come with safety hazards and risk of injury, so always be careful when working with tyres and cutters. But if you don’t have anything else to do with your old tyres, we recommend the safest option, which is calling a trusted rubbish removal team to pick them up.
5. Call a Sydney Junk Removal Team
Getting rid of old tyres can be a hassle. Not only are they bulky and heavy, but piles of them also threaten your health and property. Once your tires catch fire, they give off oils that classify as Class B fire which is difficult to put out.
The safest way to get rid of your tires properly is by calling a local rubbish removal team to pick up the massive pile. Our team at Aussie Junk is committed to curbing as much waste from landfills as possible. We have a network of local recycling facilities and will ensure your old tyres are disposed of properly and efficiently.
We understand how much space your old tyres take up in your garage. So book your next unwanted tyre removal on 0435 569 921 at your most convenient hour. Our team is on-call 24/7!
