As Retreading Declines, Australia’s End-of-Life Tyre Challenge Will Only Grow

Australia’s heavy vehicle tyre industry is facing an important transition.

A recent comprehensive market analysis commissioned by Tyre Stewardship Australia highlighted the continuing decline of the country’s truck tyre retreading sector, with retread market share reportedly falling from around 20% to approximately 10% over the past decade.

While much of the discussion has focused on manufacturing capability, transport costs and circular economy policy, there is another important implication that deserves greater attention:

If fewer truck tyres are being retreaded and returned to service, more tyres will enter the end-of-life waste stream earlier than they otherwise would have.

That reality places additional pressure on Australia’s tyre recycling infrastructure.

Retreading Has Always Been Part of Tyre Recovery

For decades, retreading has played a major role in extending the usable life of heavy commercial tyres used primarily on trucks and busses.

Unlike many lower-cost single-use imports, quality truck tyre casings are designed to be reused multiple times. A tyre may begin life in a steer position, then be retreaded for drive applications, and later reused again in trailer positions before finally reaching end-of-life.

To be fair though, the retreadability of low-cost Asian manufactured tyres have been improving with some brand’s casings performing on par with quality tyres.

From a circular economy perspective, this is highly efficient.

• It delays waste generation.
• It reduces raw material consumption.
• It lowers embodied carbon emissions.
• And it extracts significantly more value from the original tyre casing.

The TSA report estimates that retreading currently avoids approximately 300,000 tyres or 16,000 tonnes of tyre waste annually in Australia.

As retreading capacity declines, those tonnes do not disappear. They simply move downstream into the recycling system earlier.

The Recycling Burden Will Continue to Increase

Even if retreading stabilises, Australia’s heavy vehicle fleet continues to grow. Given Australia’s vast size, moving goods on rubber remains the preferred transport method in addition to increasing construction and agriculture to cater for a growing population.

The report projects that heavy commercial tyres in use could increase from approximately 7 million tyres today to more than 10 million tyres by 2045, driven by freight growth, urban logistics and infrastructure activity.

That means the tyre recycling sector is likely to face increasing volumes regardless of policy outcomes.

If retread uptake continues to decline at the same time, the pressure intensifies further.

More single-use truck tyres entering the market means:

• More end-of-life tyres generated sooner
• Greater stockpile and disposal risks
• Increased transport and handling requirements
• Higher processing demand for recyclers
• Greater need for domestic tyre-derived product markets

This is particularly important for regional and industrial Australia, where freight, mining, construction and waste collection fleets consume large volumes of heavy-duty tyres every year.

Truck Tyres Are Not Simple to Recycle

Heavy commercial tyres are fundamentally different to passenger tyres.

• Their construction is heavier.
• Their sidewalls are thicker.
• Their steel content is significantly higher.
• And the bead packages are extremely robust.

Processing these tyres efficiently requires purpose-built heavy-duty equipment capable of handling dense steel-reinforced materials under high torque loads.

This is where industrial shredding systems become essential within the broader tyre recovery chain.

Primary shredding is often the first major processing stage, reducing whole truck tyres into manageable material for downstream separation, granulation, crumbing, TDF production or other recovery pathways.

Without appropriately sized and engineered processing equipment, heavy commercial tyres become difficult and costly to handle at scale.

Recovery Infrastructure Still Matters

The broader lesson from the TSA report is that tyre recovery cannot rely on a single solution.

1. Retreading extends tyre life and reduces waste generation.
2. Recycling processes tyres that ultimately reach end-of-life.
3. End markets determine whether recovered material has long-term value.

All three parts of the chain matter.

Australia’s tyre sector is increasingly being shaped by questions around lifecycle economics, procurement policy, transport efficiency, sovereign manufacturing capability and circular economy outcomes.

Regardless of where the retread market ultimately lands, one reality remains clear:

Australia will continue generating large volumes of end-of-life heavy vehicle tyres, and the infrastructure required to safely process and recover those materials will remain critically important.

For recyclers and processors, the focus is no longer simply on handling tyre waste.

It is about building systems capable of managing long-term material recovery at industrial scale.

Want to discuss heavy-duty tyre processing infrastructure or industrial tyre shredding solutions? Speak with the Waste Initiatives team about tyre recovery systems designed for Australian conditions.