In 2018, tyre retailer Byron Duncan established a new business dealing with a hard to solve waste product – end of life tyres.
Hawke’s Bay Tyre Shredding does exactly “what it says on the tin”. It takes end of life tyres and processes them, shredding them into TDF (tyre derived fuel) that’s used in the local cement making process.
Duncan has had a long career in the tyre industry, and still retails tyres from his Tiger Tyres business in Napier’s Hyderabad Road. Hawke’s Bay Tyre Shredding solved a problem, he says.
“I got sick and tired of having to pay to dispose of old tyres. Contacts of mine from Korea were doing a similar thing, and doing quite well out of it.
“So I did my homework, found a New Zealand company that could make the tyre shredding machinery, bought a building in Awatoto, and got started.”
Six years on, Duncan has saved hundreds of thousands of tyres from going to landfill, and he’s really pleased to be doing the right thing for the environment.
In New Zealand, more than five million tyres reach end of life every year, with a very low percentage recycled. That’s been the impetus for establishing Tyrewise, the Government’s recently launched tyre stewardship scheme.
Tyrewise attaches a fee to every tyre that’s imported into New Zealand, that covers the collection and management of the tyres when they reach their end of life so they can be recycled or used in a new product.
For the scheme to work successfully, it needs businesses to collect and process the tyres. Hawke’s Bay Tyre Shredders is both a Tyrewise collector/transporter and a Tyrewise processor, for Hawke’s Bay.
Duncan is pleased to see the Tyrewise scheme launch, and looks forward to Hawke’s Bay Tyre Shredding being a vital part of the Tyrewise scheme in the region.
Contact Byron Duncan 021 131 8535.