Could Preventing Tyre Dumping Be Cheaper Than Cleaning It Up?

A $75,000 tyre collection program in regional Western Australia raises a simple question for councils dealing with illegal dumping: could it be cheaper to give people somewhere to dispose of unwanted tyres before they are dumped?

The Shire of York has secured Commonwealth and Western Australian Government funding to establish its Drop & Roll Tyre Program. The program will give residents a local place to dispose of end-of-life tyres for recycling.

What makes the project interesting is York’s recent history.

In 2022, the Shire was dealing with illegally dumped tyres and paying to remove them. At the same time, residents looking for a legitimate council disposal option were being directed outside the municipality.

Drop & Roll will now provide the local disposal pathway that was missing.

A new tyre disposal option for York

The Australian and Western Australian governments announced more than $3.7 million for 16 regional and remote recycling projects in July, with York receiving $75,000 to establish Drop & Roll.

York CEO Alina Behan told Echo Newspaper that tyres would be collected at the York Waste Transfer Station before being sent for recycling.

The program is expected to be operational by 30 June 2027.

For York residents, it represents something they did not previously have: a local council pathway for disposing of end-of-life tyres.

York has dealt with dumped tyres before

In January 2022, the Shire reported tyres being illegally dumped at the York Motocross facility and an off-road parking area on Great Southern Highway.

Residents wanting to dispose of tyres legally were directed to waste facilities in Northam or Red Hill.

By December that year, another large quantity of tyres had appeared at the motocross facility.

This time the Shire made the financial consequence clear.

“The Shire will now have to pay for the removal of these tyres, using municipal funds that could be better spent elsewhere,” it said at the time.

Four years later, York has secured funding for a local collection service.

There is no evidence that the lack of a local service caused the dumping, and the Shire has not confirmed that preventing illegal dumping is an objective of Drop & Roll.

But the sequence raises an important question.

If councils ultimately pay to recover dumped tyres, could making legal disposal easier prevent some of those costs in the first place?

Cleaning up dumped tyres is expensive

York’s experience is part of a much larger Australian problem.

Research commissioned by Tyre Stewardship Australia and undertaken by Blue Environment estimated that local governments collectively spend approximately $6.5 million each year cleaning up inappropriately disposed end-of-life tyres.

The National End-of-Life Tyres Options Project also found that managing illegally dumped tyres can cost substantially more per tyre than lawful recycling and disposal.

The reason is straightforward.

A tyre entering an authorised recycling system still needs to be collected, transported and processed.

A dumped tyre may first need to be located, investigated, collected by council workers and removed from the site. Enforcement and site rehabilitation can add further costs.

After all that, the tyre still needs to be recycled or disposed of.

Providing a legal collection service does not eliminate the cost of managing an end-of-life tyre. It could, however, avoid some of the additional costs created when that tyre enters the illegal waste stream.

Access and enforcement solve different problems

Providing somewhere to dispose of tyres is not a replacement for enforcement.

Commercial dumping, rogue waste operators and people deliberately avoiding disposal costs still require investigation and penalties.

But enforcement and access address different parts of the problem.

When York experienced dumping in 2022, the Shire warned that significant penalties could apply. Another dumping incident was nevertheless reported later that year.

Drop & Roll introduces something different: a local alternative.

This is also relevant to the tyre industry. Tyre retailers already capture large numbers of end-of-life tyres when replacement tyres are fitted, but not every unwanted tyre passes through a retailer.

Tyres can remain in sheds, on farms or on private properties. Others may be removed from vehicles privately.

A council collection point potentially provides another route for those tyres to enter the legitimate recovery system.

Could York provide a useful test?

Once Drop & Roll begins operating, York has an opportunity to find out whether providing easier disposal makes a measurable difference.

The Shire could compare the number of tyres collected through the program with illegal dumping incidents, clean-up expenditure and the cost of operating the service.

That could provide useful evidence for other Australian councils facing similar problems.

There is currently no indication that York intends to undertake such an assessment.

Important questions remain unanswered

There is also still a lot we do not know about how Drop & Roll will operate.

TreadTorque contacted the Shire of York seeking additional information about the program but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Among the unanswered questions are whether residents will pay to dispose of tyres, how many tyres can be deposited, whether tyres on rims will be accepted and whether businesses and agricultural operators will be able to use the service.

It is also unclear how many tyres York expects to collect, which recycler will receive them and what recovery pathways will ultimately be used.

The Shire has also not confirmed whether its previous illegal dumping problems influenced the decision to seek funding for Drop & Roll, or whether it intends to measure dumping incidents and clean-up costs after the program begins.

These details will help determine how accessible the program is and whether its impact can eventually be measured.

Conclusion

Drop & Roll is not yet a proven solution to illegal tyre dumping, and there is no evidence that it was specifically designed as one.

But York provides an interesting case study.

In 2022, the Shire was spending municipal money removing tyres after they had been dumped while residents had no equivalent local council disposal service.

By 2027, residents should have somewhere within York to take those tyres instead.

For councils dealing with persistent tyre dumping, the principle is worth considering: if public money ultimately pays for the clean-up, providing a convenient route into legitimate recycling before tyres are abandoned may be a better place to invest some of that money.