Why are we still burying mining tyres in the ground?

Congratulations to Leigh Cometti and the team at CTS Tyre Recycling on this week's official opening of their $50 million facility in northern Perth — another vote of confidence in WA's status as a world leader in tyre recycling.
But behind the ribbon-cutting is an uncomfortable truth.

Each year, around 50,000 tonnes of mining tyres reach their end of life in the Pilbara, and most are buried or stockpiled on site — legally — under "exclusion zone" exemptions that apply nowhere else. Less than 5% of mining tyres are recycled, with more than $50 million in recoverable materials lost every year.

Our CEO Lina Goodman has been on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV and radio across WA this week making the case: taxpayers helped fund these facilities, yet we risk seeing them mothballed because they can't secure volume — all while those valuable tyres stay buried in pit.

The change sits with the WA Government. It could choose to set licence conditions that require recycling over burial, unlocking the feedstock these facilities need to survive.

You can't build a circular economy with one hand while keeping free disposal exemptions open with the other.

👉 The solution is straightforward: a clear timeline to phase out pit burial and landfill exemptions, and direct that feedstock to the facilities that industry and government have already invested in.

The infrastructure exists. The technology works. Now we need the policy to match.

Pictured: Call to stop truck tyres getting put into landfill | Kalgoorlie Miner (4 Jun 2026)