Africa's pumped-up search for value in end-of-life tyres

From the newsletter

As African countries grapple with growing end-of-life tyre waste, attention is shifting to its industrial potential. In South Africa, GeT Metal Group has launched a waste-to-energy initiative converting discarded tyres into industrial fuel, which is used to replace conventional furnace oil in its aluminium recycling operations. 

• Rising vehicle ownership, along with increased imports of used vehicles and tyres, is intensifying pressure on end-of-life tyre management systems across African markets. 

• South Africa is estimated to generate between 11 million and 16 million end-of-life tyres annually, while Nigeria produces nearly 10 million and Tanzania more than 7 million, highlighting both the scale of the waste management challenge and the opportunity for recycling, recovery and industrial reuse. 

More details

• At the centre of the GeT Metal Group project in South Africa is a vertically integrated circular model that seeks to recover value from multiple tyre waste streams. The company plans to convert around 150,000 end-of-life tyres annually into 1.44 million litres of industrial fuel for use in its aluminium melting furnaces, replacing conventional heavy fuel oil. It also recovers carbon black for aluminium dross processing and steel wire for steel billet production, creating multiple industrial outputs from a single waste stream. According to the company, the project diverts approximately 12,500 tyres per month while supporting aluminium recycling operations that process around 350 million used beverage cans and other post-consumer aluminium scrap annually. 

• The initiative reflects a broader evolution in how tyre waste is being managed. While many recovery efforts have focused on retreading, upcycling and material applications such as rubber crumb, these pathways often struggle to absorb the growing volume of end-of-life tyres generated across the continent. GeT Metal's model instead integrates tyre-derived fuel, carbon black and recovered steel directly into manufacturing operations, creating a captive market for materials that might otherwise remain underutilised.

• This approach aligns with a growing interest in industrial recovery pathways for end-of-life tyres. South Africa already has one of Africa's most developed tyre recovery industries, with recovered tyres being used in applications ranging from rubber crumb production and civil engineering projects to pyrolysis, carbon black recovery and energy generation. Research on the country's waste tyre sector found that approximately 18% of recovered tyres are converted into oil and carbon black through pyrolysis, while a further 16% are used for energy recovery in industrial kilns. GeT Metal's initiative builds on the growing use of pyrolysis, one of the world's main industrial tyre recycling pathways, by integrating the resulting fuel and materials into its own operations. 

• Similar approaches are emerging elsewhere on the continent. In Senegal, processed waste tyres have been supplied to the Sococim cement plant in Rufisque for use as an alternative fuel in clinker production. In 2019, the facility received more than 5,000 tonnes of shredded tyres from France for use in its cement kilns, making it one of the earliest large-scale tyre-derived fuel projects in West Africa. While the approach differs from GeT Metal's integrated recycling model, both initiatives highlight the growing role of end-of-life tyres as a source of industrial energy rather than solely a waste management challenge. 

• The emergence of such projects points to a broader challenge facing Africa's circular economy. As countries strengthen collection systems and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programmes, the success of tyre recovery efforts will depend on the development of viable end markets for recovered materials. 

Our take

• GeT Metal's model stands out because, unlike many recycling businesses that depend on external buyers for recovered materials, it integrates tyre-derived fuel and the byproducts directly into its own operations. In doing so, it demonstrates how waste streams can be transformed into strategic industrial inputs rather than simply recycled products. 

• For many waste streams, the challenge is not recovery but finding uses large enough to absorb recovered materials at scale. Industrial sectors such as cement, metals and manufacturing may ultimately prove more important to circular economy growth than traditional recycling markets because of their ability to consume large volumes of secondary materials.