A veteran waste advocate is calling for federal intervention as illegal tyre dumping drains millions from local council budgets and community infrastructure.
The sun was just beginning to hit the asphalt when I spotted two shredded passenger tyres resting in the tall grass off the shoulder. A few kilometres further down the road and the scale of the problem shifted – a truck was pulled over beside a jagged pile of rubber – dozens of tyres scattered across the verge.
This scene, Lina Goodman tells me, is far from an anomaly; it is being played out right across Australia.
As the Chief Executive Officer of Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA), Lina sees these “tumours” – a constant stream of smaller, pervasive illegal dumps that are spreading across the country – every day.
The numbers are staggering. On the surface, Australia appears to be a success story in the circular economy, with nearly 90 per cent of passenger tyres successfully collected.
However, the remaining 10 per cent translates into the equivalent of millions of car tyres being dumped or stockpiled, creating a legacy of financial, environmental, and health risks for local communities.
In the 2022-23 financial year alone, cleaning up illegally dumped tyres cost Australian councils an estimated $6.5 million, according to a report commissioned by TSA. However, Lina believes this figure is grossly underestimated, as many stockpiles and illegally dumped tyres are difficult to measure – and accurate measurement does not necessarily mean they are fully accounted for.
The report, Stockpiling and illegal dumping of tyres: cost to local governments and others, found that nationally, about 300,000 tyres were retrieved from roadsides and bushland at an average cost of $22 per tyre – nearly triple the $7.60 fee a consumer typically pays to dispose of a tyre at a retail shop.
“We talk about rogue operators, but it’s organised waste crime,” Lina says, her voice reflecting a decade of frustration. “They are organised waste crime groups that are taking money and dumping tyres.”
TSA is a not-for-profit organisation that manages Australia’s voluntary Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme. Authorised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, TSA works with retailers, recyclers, and manufacturers to promote sustainable management, research new uses, and support responsible end-markets for used tyres.
Lina says that after 11 years of voluntary measures, rogue operators continue to exploit the system, and everyday Australians are carrying the cost.
Brimbank is a large, diverse local government area located in the western and north-western suburbs of Melbourne, about 15 kilometres from the CBD. In 2024, the City of Brimbank spent $86,000 cleaning up illegally dumped tyres. Wyndham City Council, in Melbourne’s outer south-west, spends $6000 every month.
In Isla Gorge, Queensland, it cost $100,000 just for crane hire to remove more than 200 tyres dumped in a ravine. And in the most recent high-profile case, more than 3000 tyres were illegally dumped inside the Macquarie Pass National Park, near Wollongong, New South Wales.
Lina says while the tyre dumper was fined $60,000, the cleanup bill was $200,000, including the cost of specialist contractors who had to use a flying fox pulley system to remove the tyres.
“Rogue operators, criminals posing as legitimate recyclers, advertise on social media or simply knock on doors to collect tyres for a fee, only to dump them in national parks, under bridges, or even in private driveways once the cash is in their pockets,” Lina says.
“These are not businesses having a ‘bad day’; they are opportunistic entities that often use stolen vehicles or swap number plates to evade detection.”
She says the impact on the market is devastating. Legitimate collectors, who invest in the infrastructure and licensing required to process tyres responsibly, report losing up to 40 per cent of their business to these criminals who undercut them.
Ratepayers are effectively paying twice: once when replacing their tyres, and again through their rates to clean up the mess left by illegal dumping.
“Councils across Australia are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year collecting dumped tyres, and that’s ratepayer money diverted from critical infrastructure,” Lina says.
“Victoria just announced $21.5 million to tackle illegal dumping, which is a huge amount of money that could have gone to building roads and vital infrastructure instead of cleaning up after criminals. This is about economic fairness for everyday Australians and for legitimate businesses that want to do the right thing.”
Lina says the time for studies and voluntary measures is over. The Federal Government needs to mandate product stewardship for tyres now.
“Every year of delay means more millions of dollars for councils, more environmental damage, and more legitimate businesses struggling to survive.”
The solution, Lina says, is in a proven global model. Mandatory product stewardship schemes have already demonstrated their efficacy in reducing or eliminating dumping.
In British Columbia, Canada, mandatory regulation has virtually wiped-out tyre dumping.
Closer to home, New Zealand’s mandatory scheme resulted in a local council reporting a 47 per cent drop in illegal dumping in its first year of operation alone – an outstanding result.
Lina says these schemes work because they remove the commercial incentive for crime by ensuring that the cost of recycling is managed at the point of import and that only accredited, audited participants can handle the material.
“Legitimate recyclers who have invested in state-of-the-art recycling infrastructure should benefit from recycling opportunities and revenue, not unlawful operators looking to cut corners,” she adds.
“Mandatory schemes level the playing field, ensuring everyone plays by the same rules by providing the regulatory certainty that investors need to build local recycling infrastructure. Without this certainty, the opportunity for a thriving domestic tyre recycling and advanced manufacturing industry is being lost.
“With proper regulation, Australia could turn waste tyres into valuable products like crumb rubber for roads and other high-quality finished products, creating hundreds of jobs and attracting significant investment. However, no sane investor will put millions into a recycling facility while a rogue operator can undercut them by dumping tyres in a national park for free.”
Furthermore, dumped tyres are often so soiled with mud or contaminated by chemicals that they cannot be processed into high-value end markets, meaning they inevitably end up in landfill even after they are recovered.
In November 2025 the Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science announced a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Australian tyre industry, looking at its role in the circular economy, focusing on improving resource recovery, developing new markets for recycled materials and addressing waste.
Lina welcomes the inquiry and says many local councils across Australia have made a submission. What is needed now is action.
“We have reached our limit as a voluntary scheme, and we can’t create end markets when these tyres are being dumped and contaminated. If the Federal Government fails to regulate, local councils will be left paying for dumped tyres forever,” she says.
“When people see this as just an environmental problem, they miss half the story. This is also about economic fairness – for every Australian and for legitimate businesses. It’s about making sure crime doesn’t pay.”
For more information, visit: www.tyrestewardship.org.au
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