Waste Tyres - Not Necessarily Anymore

We have been associated with some technology to use end of life tyres in civil construction.  It works very well and is described at www.ecoflex.com.au .

But more is happening in this space with a lot of success using tyres in steel making.

UNSW collaborated with industry partner OneSteel to develop ‘green steel’ technology, wherein old tyres and plastics provide a source of carbon to replace a significant proportion of the non-renewable coke used to make steel in electric arc furnaces.

The ‘green steel’ technology invented at UNSW has now achieved a major milestone, with its use in Australia preventing more than two million waste rubber tyres from ending up in landfill. The discarded tyres were used by OneSteel, an Arrium company to manufacture steel at its Sydney and Melbourne facilities.

UNSW Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla collaborated closely with OneSteel to develop the polymer injection technology.

Professor Sahajwalla, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT@UNSW) in the Faculty of Science said they were thrilled to have surpassed the two-million tyre milestone. The achievement demonstrates the benefits of collaborations between researchers and industry.

Under an agreement with UNSW’s commercialisation company, NewSouth Innovations, OneSteel has sub-licensed the technology to companies in Thailand, South Korea and the United Kingdom and has plans to further commercialise it around the globe.

Daniel Miles, Manager Steelmaking Solutions at OneSteel observes that close collaboration between OneSteel and UNSW has turned an innovative idea into a manufacturing reality. He explains that polymer injection technology is not only good for the environment, but also offers financial benefits for the steel manufacturer in terms of reduced electricity consumption, lower carbon injectant costs as well as yield and productivity improvements.

Professor Sahajwalla is now working towards her goal of a 100 per cent recyclable car, developing high-temperature technology that can turn waste glass and plastic into valuable metallic alloys – an approach that could also be used to transform electronic waste.

Professor Sahajwalla was awarded $2.2 million earlier this year by the Federal Government to establish a ‘green manufacturing’ research hub at UNSW, with industry partners including Arrium, Brickworks Building Products, Jaylon Industries and Tersum Energy.

In August, Professor Sahajwalla was awarded a prestigious Australian Laureate Fellowship worth $2.37 million.

This work is absolutely awesome and demonstrates how innovative thinking can solve BIG problems!

National Recycling Week

Do you recycle?


Most Australians recycle paper especially newsprint, where about 75% or more is recycled. Office paper is also generally recycled or shredded, mostly, for security reasons, often after reuse for scribbling notepads.


And we do reasonably well with aluminium cans too.



South Australia has container deposit legislation and the NT is about to introduce the same broad system of container deposits. South Australia has very high rates of recycling of a wide range of containers, much higher than other states of Australia. Attributed almost entirely to the legislation, and there is a thriving industry around the system as well. Drum Muster handles recycling of agrochemical containers very well.



Organic or green waste recycling is well established around many areas of Australia with various degrees of success, with South Australia actually having a deficit in supply.......yes there is more demand than supply!! Horticulture is a big user, particularly the vineyard industries of the State, with the same industry in other states also a big user of mulch and composts.





Yet there are poor examples around Australia, with tyres [ see photo of a smart way to recycle tyres] and e-waste notable examples. Additional tyres are now shredded or chopped and exported for further processing, but generally we seem to generate a lot of waste tyres still. E-waste is a growth area, and so far the problem continues to grow, although some progress is being made locally on some modest areas.



November 7 -13 is Australia's National Recycling Week. Do your bit........every bit of recycling counts.

More information is here - http://recyclingweek.planetark.org/fff/ with the Friday File Fling a fun way to get into recycling.

Ecoflex Does the Job for Erosion Management

With the support of an NT Government Environment Grant plus assistance from the Department of Planning and Infrastructure a trail to evaluate Ecoflex as a roadside scour protection on floodways was installed late in 2006. This follows earlier use in the NT in other projects.

The trial is on the Cox Peninsula Road, about 130kms from Darwin, and close to the end of the Delissaville airstrip on the western side of Darwin Harbour.

Local Darwin weather has been relatively quiet since the project was completed in November 2006, with the rain in the period up to late February relatively low, by local standards, and no major storm events. But, over the period March 1, 2007 through 6 March, that changed - with over 500 mm in this period with about 90% falling in the three days 3-5 March. The area flooded, with around 300mm across the road, although relatively slow moving, and the road was closed, except for large 4WD and trucks on Saturday and Sunday.

The Ecoflex has come through the first part of the trial very well, with no apparent damage. This was expected, based on results in temperate Australia, but they do not usually get rain like this! It is early in the length of the trial, but it looks very promising.

Ecoflex is a low cost option in lieu of the conventional use of wire mattress protection, and it uses Ecoflex units produced from truck tyres. It is energy and greenhouse gas saving AND costs less. The performance is at least equal to existing options, and potentially superior in some areas.

A brief report is available on request to office@abovecapricorn.com.au and more details on Ecoflex uses at the web site www.ecoflex.com.au .