Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA) has released a new report exposing the systemic barriers preventing Australia from achieving higher levels of tyre circularity.
The Tyre Supply Chain Analysis: Opportunities to grow Australia’s circular economy for tyres report – prepared by Randell Environmental Consulting – provides the most detailed assessment to date of the pressures, gaps and inefficiencies across the national tyre supply chain.
The report identifies 33 constraints limiting progress, including six rated ‘very high’:
- Free‑riding importers who do not contribute to the scheme levy.
- Rogue collectors undercutting accredited operators and driving illegal dumping.
- Ongoing permitted onsite burial of mining tyres.
- On‑farm dumping and burning due to high collection costs.
- Low domestic recycling rates, with only 17 per cent of tyres recycled.
- Underdeveloped end markets limiting higher‑value recovery.
The analysis confirms that Australia’s tyre circular economy cannot scale under the current voluntary model, with mandatory participation identified as the most effective mechanism to address market failures and drive improved national outcomes.
The report reveals that companies responsible for 47 per cent of replacement tyre imports and 99 per cent of vehicle-fitted tyre imports do not contribute to Australia’s voluntary stewardship scheme levy, creating an uneven playing field where responsible importers are penalised while free-riders benefit from scheme programs at no cost.
Australia’s tyre product steward was established in 2014 to implement the national Tyre Product Stewardship Scheme (TPSS) – an ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission)-authorised industry framework to reduce the environmental, health and safety impacts of the 56 million equivalent passenger units which reach their end of life in Australia each year.
With about 537,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres generated annually in Australia, only 26 per cent are reused (nine per cent) or recycled (17 per cent), while 40 per cent are exported for energy recovery and the remainder are either landfilled, buried on-site at mines, stockpiled or illegally dumped.
“While joint TSA–state/territory programs could be pursued, and amendments to the existing voluntary scheme are recommended, the report is clear that optimising the current voluntary approach will only drive limited growth,” said Lina Goodman, Chief Executive Officer of Tyre Stewardship Australia.
“A regulated scheme fit-for-purpose in the Australian context – designed across the entire supply chain, supported by incentives, and staged where necessary to reflect market readiness – is essential if tyres are to meaningfully contribute to Australia’s circular economy targets.”
Goodman noted that existing legislation, including the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020 and the NSW Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025, could support such a scheme, yet this has not occurred despite tyres being on the Minister’s Priority List since 2022–23.
“The report’s findings are unequivocal. Australia’s tyre supply chain is constrained from achieving high levels of material circularity due to fragmented policies, laws, implementation and enforcement across all levels of government,” Goodman said.
“Without mandatory participation, the current scheme simply cannot deliver the circularity rates called for by the government’s framework.”
The findings align with the Australian Government’s 2024 Circular Economy Framework commitment to double Australia’s circularity rate, which includes reducing material footprint by 10 per cent, lifting materials productivity by 30 per cent, and safely recovering 80 per cent of resources. The report concludes that tyres represent a product group that can contribute significantly more to measurable increases in material circularity.
The report’s conclusions are consistent with the recent Western Australian Government’s National End-of-Life Tyres Options Report, which also found that a well-designed, regulated product stewardship scheme tailored to the Australian context is required to address free-riding, inadequate collections, underdeveloped processing markets, ongoing disposal of off-the-road tyres and ultimately improving tyre circularity outcomes.
“The time for researching and reporting is over,” Goodman said. “Industry has already invested millions in tyre recycling infrastructure in anticipation of the stronger regulation that government has long signalled is coming.
“What we need now is commitment from the federal and state governments to implement mandatory participation in a product stewardship scheme for tyres. Only the government can take the next necessary step: the time for action has come.”
The full report, Tyre Supply Chain Analysis: Opportunities to grow Australia’s circular economy for tyres, is available here
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