Supercars initiates tyre recycling program with Entyr

Supercars has partnered with Queensland-based clean conversion company Entyr, with the goal to give the championship’s race-used Dunlop tyres a new lease on life.

Entyr is a world-leading Australian company which specialises in recycling end-of-life tyres by turning them into high-quality raw materials, and recently took delivery of over 400 Dunlop Sport Maxx tyres from October’s Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 for recycling. 

The project following the Gold Coast 500 has served as a trial run for the partnership, with the future intention of recycling all used Supercar tyres through Entyr’s patented recycling process.

Each season the Repco Supercars Championship and Dunlop Super2 and Super3 Series use over 14,000 Dunlop Sport Maxx tyres. Worldwide, nearly one billion waste tyres are thrown out each year, with 90% of them either burned or buried. 

The shared goal of Supercars’ partnership with Entyr would see those race-used Dunlop tyres converted to raw materials for use in various industries around Australia replacing the need for virgin resources.

Supercars Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer Tim Watsford labelled the new partnership as a key step in the championship’s growing efforts in the sustainability sector.

“Supercars’ alignment with Entyr is a really important part of our journey going forward,” Watsford said.

“From a broader sport perspective, sustainability and looking after our planet are incredibly important, and Supercars is now on our journey.  

“As a sport with a huge and passionate audience, we have a great platform to try and make change and drive a greener future, and our partnership with Entyr is another key step we are taking to achieve that.”

Entyr’s decarbonisation process sees a tyre first shredded into small chunks, then rasped down to the size of a marble before entering a thermal conversion chamber for further deconstruction.

At the end of the process, what was formerly a Dunlop Sport Maxx tyre that raced on the streets of the Gold Coast is transformed into separated samples of recovered carbon black, fuel oil, and clean steel.

Recovered carbon black, which comes in an extremely fine powdered substance, is commonly used to produce asphalt, and has been proven to result in safer, longer lasting road surfaces.

Fuel oil derived from the decarbonisation process behaves similarly to diesel and can be used as a replacement to diesel in some industrial applications, including the production of asphalt.

The clean steel derived from the process is then sold to steel mills, where it is melted and included in other production uses, such as the manufacturing of train wheels. 

Entyr CEO David Wheeley cited his enthusiasm for the project, which forms an important part of Entyr’s goals.

“We are excited to partner with Supercars and Dunlop who support our commitment to solving the global waste tyre problem,” Wheeley said.

“Excitingly, we're at the forefront of a solution to this problem. 

“We have an internationally patented, low-emissions thermal baking process for end-of-life tyres. Our process avoids the burning of toxic waste and is controlled within an atmospherically sealed vessel, repurposing almost 100 per cent of the tyre.

The partnership with Entyr forms a valuable part of Supercars’ sustainability efforts as the championship strives to achieve its sustainability goals.

Earlier this year Supercars and its official fuel partner, bp, introduced E75 Racing Fuel, a lower carbon race fuel that contains more than 80% second generation fuel components.

The new-for-2023 Gen3 Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro Supercars have raced using E75 Racing Fuel throughout 2023, while the Dunlop Series will adopt the fuel blend from 2024.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship concludes next weekend at the VAILO Adelaide 500 on the streets of Adelaide.

Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki holds a 131-point lead over Triple Eight's Shane van Gisbergen as both the drivers’ and teams’ championship are set to be decided at the season finale event from November 23-26.