Environmental Protection Authority Victoria removes 800 tonnes of tyres from Stawell Tyre yard stockpile in time lapse

The Authority posed the progress update on social media on Friday afternoon, including a time-lapse video of the tyres being removed with excavators.

Stawell’s tyres are being taken by the truckload to the Tyrecyle shredding facility in Somerton to be recycled into asphalt, tile adhesive and playground lining.

The EPA used its legislated powers to take control of the site last week after the owners failed to meet a deadline to act on fire hazard notifications.

The Stawell Times-News was granted inside access to the tyre yard and the EPA’s cleanup efforts this week.

The EPA has described its cleanup and removal efforts at Stawell Tyre Yard as a marathon rather than a sprint, with a rough estimate of 12 to 18 weeks of work at the site.

Though previous estimates had placed the yard’s stockpile at nine milllion tyres,

EPA executive director regional services Damian Wells posted on social media that the authority’s own estimate was much lower.

“Our estimate of tyres is 1-2million based on latest drone flights, volumetric assumption of 12 tyres per cubic metre. We could be wrong!” he stated.