Devulcanization a game-changer for tyre recycling – Mathe Group

SOUTH AFRICA – Mathe Group, a leading tyre recycling company based in KwaZulu-Natal, is championing devulcanization as a crucial next step to unlocking greater value and sustainability in South Africa’s tyre recycling industry.

According to the company’s statement, Mathe Group believes a large-scale operational devulcanization plant could significantly enhance the circular economy, reduce the country’s reliance on virgin rubber imports, and help address the growing challenge of waste tyres, particularly the tough-to-process off-the-road varieties.

In South Africa, the tyre recycling industry remains focused on shredding, crumb production, and energy recovery.

However, Mathe Group, having evolved from a small startup into a high-throughput recycler handling over a million radial truck tyres, argues that innovation must now go deeper.

CEO Dr Mehran Zarrebini, who also founded the Tyre Recycling Industry Association of South Africa, recently attended the European Tyre Recycling Association Conference, where devulcanization was a prominent topic.

“Devulcanization is both a challenge and an opportunity,” said Zarrebini. “It allows rubber to be reused in high-performance applications, instead of being relegated to low-end fillers or fuel substitutes.”

Rubber is vulcanized during manufacturing to improve durability, elasticity, and resistance to wear and heat, traits that also make it extremely difficult to recycle.

However, recent advances in microwave devulcanization, chemical softening, and cryogenic grinding are showing promise in breaking down the stable molecular bonds, enabling effective reuse in premium products.

While Europe benefits from supportive legislation, strong industry-academia partnerships, and funding for advanced recycling tech, South Africa’s industry continues to grapple with policy uncertainty.

The national tyre waste management plan remains unresolved, and recyclers cite red tape, lack of financial backing, and poor regulatory clarity as key constraints to growth.

Since the formalization of tyre recycling in 2016, over 16 businesses have entered the space, but progress has remained modest.

Despite these obstacles, Mathe Group is pressing ahead. The company is expanding its Hammarsdale facility with new technology to improve material recovery and processing efficiency.

Currently recycling around 1,000 radial truck tyres daily into 45 tonnes of rubber crumb, Mathe extracts around 70% usable material per tyre.

The remaining steel, currently exported, is also set to gain value. The upcoming plant upgrade will reduce rubber contamination in recovered steel to below 3%, increasing its marketability and price.

As global interest in tyre circularity grows, Mathe Group’s forward-thinking stance on devulcanization could set a new precedent in South Africa’s recycling sector, shifting the narrative from mere waste management to material innovation and circular value creation.

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