Australia recovered 66% of the 537,000 tonnes of used tires it generated in 2023-24, but only 16% of that tonnage was reused, recycled or burned for energy inside the country. The other 50 percentage points of "recovery" left on ships: exports made up 264,200 tonnes, or about 75% of everything recovered, and 212,200 tonnes of those exports went to energy recovery, mostly to markets in Asia.
That gap between headline recovery and domestic processing has barely moved in five years. Domestic-only recovery sat between 14% and 17% in every year from 2019-20 to 2023-24, according to Tyre Stewardship Australia's (TSA) material flow analysis, even after Canberra banned exports of whole used tires in December 2021. It is the number that matters for anyone selling into, sourcing from or investing in the Australian tire value chain, and it is now squarely in front of lawmakers: on 15 October 2026 (Canberra time) the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science tabled its report on the tire industry with 12 recommendations.
Exports carry three-quarters of recovered tonnes, and the 2021 whole-tire ban did not change that
The Recycling and Waste Reduction (Export, Waste Tyres) Rules 2021, made under the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020, prohibited exports of whole used tires from 1 December 2021. Exporters now need a licence and must declare each consignment, and tires may leave the country only as processed material such as shreds, crumb, buffings, granules or tire-derived fuel, or as casings for resale and retreading, as the Senate Environment and Communications Committee summarized the regime.
The rule changed the form of exported tires, not their destination. TSA's 2023-24 consumption and recovery fact sheet puts international markets at about 75% of recovered material by weight, "in line with the five-year average". Shredding a tire before loading it into a container adds a processing step in Australia, but the value-adding uses, crumb, granulate, devulcanized rubber and recovered carbon black, still mostly happen offshore or not at all.
Energy recovery is where the dependence is starkest. Of the 217,500 tonnes counted as energy recovery in 2023-24, 212,200 tonnes were exported and just 5,300 tonnes were used domestically. That is 97.6% of the energy-recovery stream leaving the country, which means Australia's recovery rate is exposed to fuel demand, freight rates and import rules in a handful of Asian markets.
Recycling gained 6 percentage points in five years, but burning tires for fuel is still the biggest outlet
There is real progress inside the totals. The recycling rate rose from 11% in 2019-20 to 17% in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, a gain of 6 percentage points, while the energy recovery rate fell from 46% to 40% over the same period. In 2023-24, recycling absorbed 89,300 tonnes, of which 52,300 tonnes were processed domestically and 37,000 tonnes were exported. Recycling exports themselves grew from 29,500 tonnes in 2022-23, an increase of 25%.
The swing years are telling. Total recovery peaked at 70% in 2020-21 and dropped to 60% in 2022-23, when landfill climbed to 15% of generation. Energy recovery fell to 32% that year before rebounding to 40% in 2023-24. A 10-point fall in total recovery from 2020-21 to 2022-23, alongside a 16-point drop in energy recovery from 48% to 32%, shows how much the headline figure depends on a single export outlet.
| Indicator (% of used tires generated, by weight) | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total recovery (domestic and export) | 67% | 70% | 64% | 60% | 66% |
| Domestic recovery only | 15% | 14% | 16% | 17% | 16% |
| Reuse | 10% | 12% | 13% | 12% | 9% |
| Recycling | 11% | 9% | 11% | 17% | 17% |
| Energy recovery | 46% | 48% | 40% | 32% | 40% |
| Landfill | 7% | 8% | 13% | 15% | 9% |
| Passenger tire recovery | 91% | 91% | 81% | 81% | 88% |
| Truck and bus tire recovery | 85% | 85% | 81% | 76% | 85% |
| Off-the-road (OTR) tire recovery | 14% | 11% | 8% | 11% | 13% |
Source: Tyre Stewardship Australia, Material Flow Analysis Report 2023-24, published June 2025. Rates are as revised in that report; the earlier January 2025 fact sheet showed 58% total recovery for 2022-23.
The segment mix explains why. Passenger tires had an 88% recovery rate in 2023-24, but 146,000 tonnes of the 167,400 recovered passenger tonnes, or 87%, went to energy recovery. Truck and bus tires behave differently: 63,600 tonnes were recycled and 37,500 tonnes reused, so 53% of the 192,000 tonnes generated stayed in material loops. Truck casings are built to be retreaded and yield more rubber per unit collected, which is why the truck and bus segment, not passenger cars, drives Australia's recycling gains. Buyers following the retread tires market should read that as a structural advantage for commercial fleets rather than a cyclical one.
Mining tires are the hole in the system: 109,300 tonnes buried onsite in one year
Off-the-road tires, mainly from mining and agriculture, accounted for about 155,000 tonnes, or 29% of used tire generation, in 2023-24. Their recovery rate was 13%, and it never exceeded 14% in the five years TSA tracked. Onsite burial at mine sites took 109,300 tonnes, about 70% of the OTR stream and 59% of all tonnes that were not recovered nationally.
Burial persists because it is cheap and legal. A Western Australian government investigation published in August 2025 estimated the direct cost of lawful onsite management of OTR tires in mining at up to A$50 per tonne, while noting that figure may not capture full costs. Giant earthmover tires are also hard to transport and cut, so recovery competes with a disposal option that sits on the mine's own land. That is why one of the committee's four highlighted recommendation areas, improving recovery and management of OTR tires, matters more to national tonnage than any change in passenger tire policy. For context on the installed base, see Radial's mining tires market coverage.
Supply keeps rising faster than domestic processing
The inflow is growing. New tire imports rose from 615,000 tonnes (65 million equivalent passenger units, EPU) in 2019-20 to 705,000 tonnes (74 million EPU) in 2023-24, a 14.6% increase by weight. About 84% of new tire imports by weight arrived as loose tires and 16% fitted to new vehicles. Used tire generation rose from about 490,000 tonnes to 537,000 tonnes over the same period, up roughly 9.6%.
Processing capacity has not kept pace in the higher-value stages. TSA counted 37 facilities in December 2024 with 435,000 tonnes of annual shredding capacity but only 86,250 tonnes of granulating and crumbing capacity. Shredding capacity equal to 81% of annual generation is enough to prepare tires for export as fuel. The crumbing capacity that turns rubber into road surfaces, sports surfaces and molded products is smaller than the 89,300 tonnes recycled in total in 2023-24, which is why recycled material still leaves the country. Domestic recycling of 52,300 tonnes is equivalent to about 61% of that nameplate crumbing capacity, though the two figures are not a like-for-like utilization measure because some recycling uses shreds directly.
The weak link between capacity and demand is the market for outputs. Crumb rubber asphalt, recovered carbon black and pyrolysis oil all need specifications, procurement rules and offtake contracts before plants get financed. Radial's end-of-life tire recycling market and tire carbon black market reports track where those outputs are finding buyers.
The voluntary levy misses most importers, and Parliament now wants national rules
Australia's scheme is voluntary. The ACCC's 2 September 2024 determination re-authorized TSA's arrangements until 2 September 2027, with a minimum levy of A$0.25 per EPU imported. The ACCC recorded 17 levy-paying members, 15 tire manufacturer-importers and 2 vehicle makers, and 1,773 scheme participants in 2022-23, up from 1,590 in 2017-18.
The coverage gap is large. TSA's 13 February 2026 supply chain analysis found that importers responsible for 47% of replacement tire imports and 99% of tires imported on new vehicles do not contribute to the levy. The same study identified 33 constraints on higher-value recovery, 6 of them rated very high. Tires have been on the federal Minister's Priority List for product stewardship since 2022-23.
The House committee inquiry, adopted on 5 November 2025 with submissions closing on 23 January 2026, has now reported. According to the committee's release of 15 October 2026, its report, "When the rubber hits the road", makes 12 recommendations, including a nationally harmonized regulatory framework, better recovery and management of OTR tires, an audit and strengthening of tire stewardship arrangements, and support for the retreading industry. The release does not say whether the committee endorsed a mandatory levy, and no government response had been published at the time of writing, so the policy direction is set but the mechanism is not.
What the 16% domestic figure means for tire makers, recyclers, miners and investors
Tire makers and importers
With 47% of replacement imports outside the levy, compliant brands are paying for collection of competitors' tires. Any move to harmonized national rules is likely to widen the paying base, which favors importers already in the scheme, but it also brings vehicle-fitted imports, 16% of new tire tonnage, into scope. OEMs and car importers should model that cost now rather than after a government response.
Distributors and retailers
Collection of passenger and truck tires already works, with recovery rates of 88% and 85%. The exposure is downstream: if export energy markets tighten, as the 2022-23 dip to 32% energy recovery showed, retailers face rising gate fees or stranded casings. Contracts with collectors that specify domestic processing shares are a hedge.
Recyclers and raw-material buyers
The supply is there: 212,200 tonnes a year currently exported for fuel is feedstock that domestic crumb, pyrolysis or recovered carbon black plants could compete for. The constraint is offtake. Buyers of crumb rubber and recovered carbon black should expect more domestic supply only where procurement standards, such as state road specifications, create guaranteed demand.
Mining companies
At up to A$50 per tonne, burial is the cost benchmark any OTR recovery service must beat. If the committee's OTR recommendations lead to tighter onsite disposal rules, the 109,300 tonnes buried each year would become a recovery market with very little lead time.
Investors
The ratio to watch is domestic recovery, not headline recovery. A sustained move above the 14% to 17% band would signal that policy is shifting value-adding onshore; a flat domestic rate with rising total recovery would mean more of the same export model.
Methodology and sources
All rates are shares of used tire tonnes generated, by weight, for Australian financial years (July to June). Rate changes are stated in percentage points; growth in tonnes is stated in percent. Derived figures (export shares, segment shares, growth rates) were recomputed from the source tonnages. Where TSA's January 2025 fact sheet and its June 2025 material flow report differ for 2022-23, we use the later report.
- Tyre Stewardship Australia, "Are we there yet? Material Flow Analysis Report 2023-24" (June 2025): five-year recovery, recycling, energy recovery, landfill and segment rates; 2023-24 fate tonnages; domestic and export market split; imports 2019-20 to 2023-24; processing capacity as of December 2024.
- Tyre Stewardship Australia, "Australian Tyre Consumption and Recovery 2023-24" fact sheet (January 2025): export share of recovered material and five-year average, loose versus vehicle-fitted import split, segment generation.
- Tyre Stewardship Australia, Tyre Supply Chain Analysis release (13 February 2026): levy non-contribution shares, 33 constraints, Minister's Priority List status.
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Final Determination AA1000655 (2 September 2024): authorization period, levy rate, levy-paying members, participant counts.
- Federal Register of Legislation, Recycling and Waste Reduction (Export, Waste Tyres) Rules 2021: the export instrument.
- Senate Environment and Communications Committee, waste reduction inquiry, Chapter 7: whole used tire export ban from 1 December 2021, licensing and declaration requirements.
- House Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science, inquiry into the Australian tyre industry: inquiry adoption and submission dates.
- House Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science, media release "The road ahead for end-of-life tyres" (15 October 2026): report title, tabling, 12 recommendations and highlighted areas.
- Government of Western Australia, Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, End-of-life tyres investigation report (August 2025): estimated direct cost of onsite OTR tire management in mining.
Frequently Asked Questions
66% of the 537,000 tonnes generated in 2023-24 was recovered through reuse, recycling or energy recovery. Only 16% of generated tonnage was recovered inside Australia; the rest of the recovered material was exported.
75% of recovered tonnes, or 264,200 tonnes, were exported in 2023-24. Of those exports, 212,200 tonnes went to energy recovery, mostly to markets in Asia.
75% of recovered material was still exported in 2023-24, in line with the five-year average, so the ban did not reduce the export share. Tires now leave as shreds, crumb or tire-derived fuel under licence instead of as whole tires.
13% was the recovery rate for off-the-road tires in 2023-24, and 109,300 tonnes were buried onsite at mines. A Western Australian government study put the direct cost of lawful onsite management at up to A$50 per tonne, which recovery services must beat.
47% of replacement tire imports and 99% of tires fitted to imported vehicles come from importers that do not contribute to the A$0.25 per EPU voluntary levy. The ACCC lists 17 levy-paying members.
12 recommendations, tabled on 15 October 2026 by the House Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science. They include a nationally harmonized regulatory framework, better recovery of OTR tires, an audit of stewardship arrangements and support for retreading.