WHEN THE RUBBER HITS THE RECYCLING ROAD
- O&A Team
- March 17, 2025
- Bonus Read, Business
- CO2 emissions, Mathe Group, Rubber crumb, Rubber recycling, Van Dyck, Waste tyres
- 0 Comments
Mathe Group saves thousands of tons of CO² by recycling a million tyres
Recycling one million waste radial truck tyres in KwaZulu-Natal has saved between 45,500 and 71,500 tons in CO? emissions since 2017 – a significant achievement for Mathe Group which is transforming a fraction of South Africa’s growing hazardous mountain of waste tyres into re-usable products.
Mathe Group CEO, Dr Mehran Zarrebini, says processing its millionth tyre brought the total amount of rubber crumb produced for re-use in key industrial and construction applications to around 38 500 tons.
Based on an infill of 100 tons of rubber crumb per full size artificial football field, this equates to 385 full size football fields or 700 full size hockey fields. Alternatively, the amount of rubber crumb produced would have provided the asphalt and seal needed to pave at least 8000 km of roads.
THE ROAD TO RUBBER RECYCLING
Mathe Group is South Africa’s largest tyre processor with national and international coverage.
PFE International, a family-owned British investment company acquired what was then Van Dyck Carpets in 2004. Dr Zarrebini discovered Mathe Group as a small business with just 20 employees operating in New Germany in 2016 whilst looking for rubber crumb to manufacture acoustic underlays and acoustic cradles for flooring in high rise buildings – products that he has since improved and continues to export.
Having acquired a 49% shareholding in Mathe Group, he relocated the company to its present site in Hammarsdale, significantly boosting production through ongoing re-investment. Mathe Group currently recycles approximately 1 000 radial truck tyres per day to produce 45 tons of rubber crumb. 70% of each 55kg truck tyre becomes rubber crumb and 30% is waste steel which is exported.
This British investor has kept his eye firmly on the rubber ball despite major disruptions in South Africa’s rubber recycling industry. With many other tyre recyclers skidding to a halt, waste tyres have become both a growing environmental hazard and a lost economic opportunity. Currently, more waste tyres are generated than can be managed and processed. As a result, South Africa’s discarded tyre count far exceeds its population.
When former Minister of Environmental Affairs, Barbara Creecy slipped through a last minute Industry Tyre Waste Management Plan prior to the 2024 elections, her advisors admitted that the durability of tyres makes landfilling problematic. Buried tyres tend to re-surface, compact poorly and do not degrade easily. The high calorific value of waste tyres poses a significant fire risk, while burning tyres releases noxious pollutants including carbon monoxide, sulphur oxides, nitrogen, volatile organic compounds, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons , benzene, heavy metals and more.
CLIMBING THE RUBBER MOUNTAIN
Government admitted that data was limited and probably inaccurate but estimated that an average of 13 million tyres with an estimated total weight of 300 000 tonnes are sold in South Africa yearly. Applying an 18-20% reduction in weight between new and waste tyres, they estimated that 240 000 to 250 000 tonnes of waste tyres are generated annually with the majority being returned to dealerships and stockpiled awaiting recycling.
Updated industry data suggest that 206 272 tonnes of waste tyres were generated in 2021 alone. Yet less than 20% of used tyres were recycled during 2020.
Mathe Group currently recycles approximately 1 000 radial truck tyres per day to produce 45 tons of rubber crumb. 70% of each 55kg truck tyre becomes rubber crumb and 30% is waste steel which is exported.
Recycling 1,000,000 radial truck tyres, each weighing 65 kg, into crumb rubber can lead to substantial carbon emission savings. A comprehensive life cycle assessment indicates that recycling vehicle tyres into crumb rubber can achieve a 71.91% reduction in CO? emissions compared to landfill and incineration methods,” he says.
Citing Genan, a leading Danish tyre recycler, Dr Zarrebini says that each tonne of tyres recycled equals 0.7–1.1 tonnes of CO? emission savings when compared to incineration: “The carbon emission savings from recycling 1,000,000 radial truck tyres, each weighing 65 kg, is approximately 58,500 tonnes of CO?, based on an average saving of 0.9 tonnes CO2 per tonne of tires recycled. For our specific milestone, we can highlight a range of 45,500 to 71,500 tonnes CO2 to showcase the minimum and maximum impact of our efforts.”
Mathe Group’s repertoire of products now includes paving blocks and flooring for agricultural use, ballistics products and gym mats, rubber pavers and the infill for sports fields. Various sizes of rubber crumb are also key ingredients in bitumen for road resurfacing, non-slip paints, moulding of automotive parts, the retreading of tyres and the production of brake linings.
Many challenges have stood in the way of achieving Mathe’s millionth tyre milestone far sooner including the Covid-19 pandemic which shut down the plant for 18 months, loadshedding, water shortages and ongoing legal battles and allegations of corruption surrounding government’s Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan (IWTMP).
Mathe Group is currently awaiting the renewal and expansion of its tyre quota from the Waste Bureau which will enable the company to significantly expand output and continue to develop new products.
