Tyres & Recovered Steel
A whole used tyre isn't something ScrapTrade handles directly, that's honestly better suited to a dedicated tyre recycler. But every tyre contains real steel wire reinforcement, and once it's properly processed, that recovered steel is genuine, tradeable scrap metal. Here's how the two parts of that story actually fit together.
Worth being direct about this upfront: if you've got used tyres to get rid of, ScrapTrade isn't the right tool, and pretending otherwise wouldn't do anyone any favours. Most of Australia's tyre recycling operates under Tyre Stewardship Australia, an industry-funded scheme that's collected a levy on new tyre sales since the ACCC first authorised it in 2013, funding proper collection, processing, and research into new uses for the recovered material. That's the legitimate path for a genuinely used tyre, a licensed collector or recycler operating under that scheme, not a general scrap metal marketplace, and it's worth understanding that distinction before assuming ScrapTrade can help with a pile of old tyres directly.
The scheme exists precisely because tyres are a genuinely difficult waste stream, bulky, slow to break down, and prone to illegal dumping or unsafe stockpiling when they end up outside a proper recycling system, problems a dedicated scheme is far better placed to manage than a general marketplace could ever be.
Most tyres contain steel wire reinforcement, both in the belt under the tread and often in the bead where the tyre seats on the wheel rim. When a proper tyre recycler shreds and processes a tyre, that steel gets genuinely separated out from the rubber crumb and fabric, melted down, and recycled into new steel products, one of several recovered outputs alongside rubber crumb used in sports surfaces and road construction material.
That steel is where ScrapTrade genuinely fits into the picture, not for whole tyres, but for tyre recycling facilities and processors who've already done the work of separating it out and have a real, tradeable volume of recovered steel wire to sell.
Tyre recyclers typically shred whole tyres down into progressively smaller pieces, then use magnetic separation to pull the steel wire out from the rubber and fabric fragments as the material moves through the process. The rubber crumb that's left behind gets sized and sold into applications like sports surfaces and asphalt additives, while the recovered steel is baled or bulk-handled separately as ordinary ferrous scrap.
The equipment involved, industrial shredders and magnetic separators, isn't something an individual seller has access to, which is exactly why this material genuinely only becomes tradeable scrap once it's passed through a proper recycling facility, not before.
Recovered tyre steel isn't its own live-priced calculator category, but it's genuine ferrous scrap once cleanly separated from rubber and fabric. If you're a tyre recycling operator with recovered steel to move, list it on the general marketplace with clear photos describing the separation process and any residual contamination, then negotiate directly with an interested buyer or post it to the Wanted Board.
Tyre recycling facilities follow population and vehicle fleet size more than one specific region. Melbourne and Brisbane both carry large, established industrial and manufacturing bases capable of hosting genuine tyre processing operations at real scale, alongside their better-known construction and manufacturing activity.
Neither city is a requirement. Tyre recycling operators generate recovered steel anywhere in Australia, and ScrapTrade connects buyers and sellers nationally regardless of where a listing is posted from.
Once properly separated, tyre steel is chemically ordinary steel, fully recyclable the same way any other ferrous scrap is, it just started life reinforcing rubber rather than as a beam or a pipe. Recovering it rather than sending it to landfill along with unrecycled tyre waste is exactly the kind of material recovery that makes the broader tyre stewardship scheme worthwhile, not just an environmental gesture but a genuine input back into steel manufacturing.
Recovered tyre steel isn't a material most general buyers see often, which makes a genuinely interested, informed buyer worth more than a nearby but unfamiliar one. On ScrapTrade, you describe your recovered steel properly, then negotiate directly with an interested buyer or post it to the Wanted Board so someone who understands the material can make you a real offer, negotiation is on by default on every listing. Every listing is GPS-video verified before it goes live, and payment sits in escrow from the moment a deal is confirmed until pickup or delivery is done, so neither side is exposed first. The full case for why that beats a single yard quote is on Why Choose ScrapTrade and Trust & Safety.
No, and it's worth saying that plainly rather than implying otherwise. Whole tyres need to go through a proper tyre recycler, most of Australia's operate under the Tyre Stewardship Australia scheme, an industry-funded program that's collected a levy on new tyre sales since being authorised by the ACCC in 2013. That's the legitimate path for used tyres, not a general scrap metal marketplace.
The steel belting inside. Most tyres contain steel wire reinforcement, and once a tyre recycler shreds and processes a tyre, that steel is genuinely recovered, melted down, and recycled into new steel products, separate from the rubber crumb and other outputs of the same process.
Tyre recycling facilities and processors, the businesses running the shredding and separation equipment, not individual tyre owners. If you're a tyre recycler with recovered steel to move, that's real, tradeable ferrous scrap like any other.
Generally comparable once it's cleanly separated from the rubber, it's genuine steel wire. The value driver is really about how cleanly it's separated, contamination from residual rubber affects how a buyer prices it, the same principle as any other steel grade.
Tyre Stewardship Australia maintains information on accredited collectors and recyclers operating under the scheme, worth checking there directly rather than assuming any operator offering to take tyres is doing so responsibly.
Generally yes, larger tyres carry proportionally more steel reinforcement to handle the greater load, which means more recoverable steel per tyre once processed. The same principle applies though, it's only accessible once a proper recycling facility has separated it out.
Yes, genuinely, it's used in sports field surfacing, playground soft-fall material, and as an additive in some road construction, a real output alongside the recovered steel. It's just not a metal product, so it sits outside what a scrap metal marketplace like ScrapTrade specialises in, worth taking to a dedicated buyer for that specific material instead.
Describe it properly, negotiate directly, or post it to the Wanted Board.
Get Started Free