Company re-affirms plan for local tyre recycling plant

THE company behind a tyre recycling plant planned for the Toowoomba region has re-affirmed its commitment to delivering the project.

Trevor Bayley, Chief Operating Officer of Green Distillation Technologies. Picture: Contributed

THE company behind a tyre recycling plant planned for the Toowoomba region has re-affirmed its commitment to delivering the project.

Green Distillation Technologies has delayed the development of the new plant for the Wellcamp Business Park after it failed to win a $5 million grant from the State Government to kick-start the funding.

Once built, the plant would turn more than 658,000 vehicle tyres into high-value oil, carbon and steel every year.

Company COO Trevor Bayley said GDT still wanted to progress with the project, but was trying to find ways to raise the $12 million in seed funding.

"We are still in discussion with the Queensland Government, but like most governments around Australia, they have a lot on their plate at present," he said,

"In February we launched a private equity fund raising for $30 million which will build Toowoomba and bring our other Australian facility at Warren in Western New South Wales to full production as well as our other international plants.

"This campaign has met with some fundraising success and we are pleased that the Motor Traders Association of Queensland has become a shareholder.

"This is a very forward thinking, responsible and community minded move by the MTAQ, as it represents some 15,500 employers in the retail, repair and service sectors of Queensland's automotive/mobility industry, employing in excess of 90,000 people who generate more than $20 billion annually."

Mr Bayley said the plant would be able to produce eight million litres of oil, 7.7 tonnes of black carbon and 2000 tonnes of steel every year.

"It will employ 14 to 18 people full time, as well as local contractors during the construction phase and create further jobs in transport associated with collection of end of life tyres from retailers and other outlets," he said.

"These are all valuable raw materials with the oil to go to the Southern Oil refinery at Gladstone and the carbon is a chemical building block widely used in manufacturing, while the steel beading and reinforcing of the tyre will go to be recycled into new steel.

"There are ample quantities of end-of-life tyres generated in the Toowoomba region with the local one million contributing to the annual 25 million in Australia each year.

"We have set an end of life tyre collection area of a three-hour truck radius from Toowoomba, which will take us to the Gold Coast, the New South Wales border, west to Chinchilla and include Brisbane, Ipswich, Roma and Kingaroy."