FCC

BHP partners on OTR tyre recycling in Queensland

2023-11-08

In a Queensland first, crumb rubber created from giant mining tyres has been used in a trial to resurface one of Queensland’s major highways, BHP reports. The trial was a collaboration between the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), BHP and the Australian Flexible Pavement Association, with the aim to investigate if a crumb rubber modified binder made from a 100 per cent OTR mining tyre could be used to construct a spray seal for Queensland roads.

Two giant BHP mining tyres, each over 4 m high and weighing 4.2 t, were used in the trial. Although OTR tyres make up to 25 per cent of ‘end of life’ tyres in Australia each year, OTR tyres are only 4 per cent of the tyre waste rubber that is recovered.

The recycling process started with cutting up the tyres to remove steel and fibres, followed by crushing and crumbing the rubber into crumb of a suitable size. The rubber crumb was then bagged ready for transport to the bitumen binder production site. The crumb was blended into the binder, which was then transported to its final destination for spraying onto the road surfacing.

One giant mining tyre, in this context, provides 3.55 t of crumb rubber, able to seal up to 3.5 km of rural highway, BHP says. The Peak Downs Highway where the repaving process took place links the towns of Mackay and Clermont and is the main link between Queensland’s Whitsunday Coast and the Central West region of the state near Moranbah.