Molectra Technologies , which converts the recycled materials of old tyres into architectural and building products, will be building a recycling plant in Sydney that will make and distribute products for specifiers nationally.
Molectra converts the rubber recycled from the tyres into products such as rubber pavers (pool surrounds, decks, balconies, driveways, entertainment areas, games rooms, etc), rubber blocks and bricks, ‘silicone’ floor tiles (with or without textured ‘skin’), garden edges, bathroom flooring, shower recess, under floor insulation (noise and vibration control), water proofing compounds, drainage material for retaining walls (‘drainage rubber’) and rubber sheeting or loose rubber granules under concrete house slabs.
From the recovered steel and plastic fibres, Molectra also supplies products such as concrete and plastic reinforcement, plastic panels and posts for residential fencing, highway sound barriers, construction blocks and foundation slabs.
Tyre recycling system inventor John G Dobozy says building of the processing plant will begin after Christmas and is expected to be completed by August next year.
“Once the plant is finished we will be able to get into large-scale production of these products,” he says.
“The specifiers that provide us with intent orders early requesting the products they want and the numbers they require over a period of time will get production of these products as a priority.”
He adds that if building projects request “development of a particular product using our rubber as a raw material, they can contact us to work on such projects”.
The Molectra waste tyre recycling process was invented by Dobozy several years ago. At the time there was a large focus in the media on environmental issues, in particular, the problem of waste tyres. Dobozy formulated an effective way to recover very clean vulcanised crumb rubber from waste tyres and later developed the apparatus to extract oil and carbon from the rubber.