Managing end-of-life truck tyres is one of the more demanding challenges in the waste management and tyre recycling industry. Their sheer size, weight, and steel-reinforced construction make them difficult to handle, transport, and process efficiently. This case study demonstrates how combining a truck and agricultural tyre sidewall cutter with the MKII Tyre Baler creates a comprehensive and highly effective solution for baling truck tyres at scale.
This integrated two-machine approach enables operators to process approximately 18 truck tyres per bale, producing completed bales that weigh between 900 and 1,000kg. At the same time, the sidewall cutting stage generates valuable by-products — principally sidewalls suitable for agricultural use — transforming what was once purely a waste disposal problem into a multi-revenue operation.
One of the most significant commercial advantages of this integrated system is the simplicity it brings to equipment investment. Rather than purchasing and maintaining separate, dedicated machines for different tyre sizes, operators using the MKII Tyre Baler gain a single, versatile solution capable of handling both car and truck tyre processing requirements.
The MKII Tyre Baler’s larger chamber capacity is central to this advantage. It can accommodate up to 18 truck tyre sections per bale — a substantially higher throughput than dedicated truck tyre balers, which typically handle between 10 and 12 tyres per bale. This translates directly into lower cost per bale, fewer machine changeovers, and a more streamlined site operation overall.
Understanding the throughput figures helps operators plan their facility layout, staffing levels, and logistics arrangements. The key performance metrics for this system are as follows:
Bale Capacity: Approximately 18 truck tyres per bale, once sidewalls have been removed, allowing for denser packing of tread sections within the baler chamber.
Bale Weight: Completed truck tyre bales weigh between 900 and 1,000kg, making them suitable for bulk transport and consistent in weight for onward processing or sale.
Processing Speed: The system is capable of producing up to 4 truck tyre bales per hour, giving operators a reliable benchmark for daily output planning.
Universal Application: Both truck tyres and car tyres can be processed using the same baler, removing the need for operators to segregate tyre types across separate machines or production lines.
Operational Efficiency: A single baler solution reduces the equipment footprint on site, simplifies operator training, and concentrates maintenance requirements on fewer machines.
The most effective approach to baling truck tyres at this scale involves a clearly defined two-stage workflow. Each stage serves a specific function, and the transition between them is straightforward once a site has been configured correctly. The two stages — sidewall cutting and tread section baling — work together to maximise both throughput and material recovery.
The sidewall cutter performs the critical first step in the process. Before any truck tyre can be effectively baled or shredded, its construction presents a fundamental challenge: the thick steel bead embedded within the sidewall is extremely hard-wearing and will rapidly damage or destroy standard shredding equipment if fed through untreated. The sidewall cutter addresses this directly by separating the sidewall — steel bead and all — from the tread section in a single, efficient cutting operation.
This separation stage is not merely a protective measure. It also creates a commercially viable by-product. Truck tyre sidewalls, once removed cleanly, can be sold directly to agricultural customers for use as silage covers. This creates a reliable secondary revenue stream that offsets processing costs and adds measurable value to what would otherwise be a waste disposal expense.
The practical benefits of the sidewall cutting stage extend across several areas of a tyre recycling operation:
Shredding Protection: By removing the steel bead before shredding, operators ensure that tread sections can be fed through shredders without risk of equipment damage. This extends the working life of shredding machinery significantly and reduces unplanned downtime.
Material Recovery: Clean sidewalls can be sold as silage covers to farming operations, generating consistent revenue and reducing the volume of material requiring further processing or disposal.
Processing Efficiency: Clear separation of tyre components enables each material stream to be handled and routed in the most appropriate way, without the need for complex sorting downstream.
Equipment Protection: Preventing steel beads from entering shredding equipment eliminates one of the most common and costly causes of shredder damage in tyre recycling facilities.
Once the sidewalls have been removed, the remaining tread sections are loaded into the MKII Tyre Baler for compaction into dense, transport-ready bales. The removal of the bulky sidewalls means that the tread sections pack far more efficiently than whole tyres would, allowing more material per bale and reducing the number of bale movements required.
The resulting bales are consistent in weight and profile, making them straightforward to palletise, load onto vehicles, and transport to tyre-derived fuel facilities, crumb rubber processors, or other downstream recycling operations. The MKII Tyre Baler’s robust construction ensures reliable, consistent bale formation across extended production runs.
The real-world impact of this system is best illustrated through the experience of operators who have made the transition from older processing methods. The following case study comes from a waste tyre collector who replaced an ageing debeading setup with the sidewall cutter and MKII Tyre Baler combination.
“In the past we had been using debeaders on truck tyres before shredding them. They were very large machines and would experience wear and tear due to the extreme force required to rip out a bead. Now with the sidewall cutter it cuts out the sidewalls in a fraction of a time with a lot less energy required, I can sell the sidewalls to farmers and bale the truck tyres in the MKII baler. That is very handy as I only need one baler for all types of tyres we have to deal with.” — Owner, Waste Tyre Collector
“In the past we had been using debeaders on truck tyres before shredding them. They were very large machines and would experience wear and tear due to the extreme force required to rip out a bead. Now with the sidewall cutter it cuts out the sidewalls in a fraction of a time with a lot less energy required, I can sell the sidewalls to farmers and bale the truck tyres in the MKII baler. That is very handy as I only need one baler for all types of tyres we have to deal with.”
— Owner, Waste Tyre Collector
This account captures the core operational shift that many tyre recycling businesses experience when making this transition. What was previously a slow, energy-intensive, and mechanically demanding process has become faster, more energy-efficient, and significantly less maintenance-heavy. The additional benefit of being able to sell sidewalls directly to farming customers has converted a cost centre into a partial revenue generator.
The operator’s experience reflects a set of improvements that are consistently reported across multiple sites using this equipment combination:
Processing Speed: Sidewall cutting is completed in a fraction of the time required for traditional debeading, allowing for much higher hourly throughput without increasing labour input.
Energy Efficiency: Debeading equipment relies on extreme mechanical force to rip steel beads from the tyre carcass, consuming substantial power and generating significant wear. The sidewall cutter achieves the same result through a precision cutting action, consuming considerably less energy per cycle.
Revenue Generation: Whole truck tyre sidewalls are in demand from agricultural customers who use them as silage covers. This creates a consistent, reliable sale of by-product material from the cutting stage.
Equipment Simplification: The MKII Tyre Baler’s ability to handle all tyre types means that operators no longer need to maintain a separate baler for truck tyres alongside one for car tyres. A single machine covers the full range.
Reduced Maintenance: Debeading machines are high-wear by nature, given the forces involved. Eliminating this equipment from the processing line removes a significant maintenance overhead and reduces the risk of unplanned breakdowns.
For operators carrying out due diligence before investing in this system, a clear understanding of the technical performance parameters is essential. Both machines in this combination have been designed and refined specifically for tyre recycling applications, and their specifications reflect the demands of high-throughput commercial processing environments.
The MKII Tyre Baler is the core processing unit in this system and has been engineered to handle the full range of tyre types encountered in commercial recycling operations:
Universal Processing: The machine accepts car tyres, truck tyres, and pre-processed tyre sections such as the tread sections produced in Stage 1 of this workflow, without requiring mechanical adjustment or additional tooling.
High Capacity: With up to 18 truck tyre sections per bale, the MKII’s chamber dimensions allow for efficient packing of tread sections, producing bales that maximise density and minimise dead space.
Heavy-Duty Output: Completed bales weigh between 900 and 1,000kg, providing consistent output for transport and downstream processing requirements.
Production Rate: The system supports production of up to 4 complete bales per hour, providing a reliable throughput baseline for operational planning.
Space Efficiency: As a single-machine baling solution for diverse tyre types, the MKII reduces the total equipment footprint required on site compared to operating multiple specialist balers.
The sidewall cutter is purpose-built for separating truck and agricultural tyre sidewalls from tread sections, and its design prioritises precision, speed, and low operating costs:
Precise Separation: The cutter delivers clean cuts that fully separate the sidewall from the tread section, preserving the quality of both materials for their respective downstream applications.
Energy Efficient: Operating at significantly lower power consumption than debeading alternatives, the sidewall cutter keeps running costs down across high-volume processing operations.
Fast Processing: Rapid cutting cycles ensure that the sidewall cutting stage does not become a bottleneck in the overall workflow, maintaining throughput at the levels required to support the baling stage.
Material Quality: The clean separation achieved by the cutter means that sidewalls retain their structural integrity for agricultural use, and tread sections are free from steel bead contamination for shredding or baling.
Equipment Protection: By intercepting steel beads before they can enter shredding equipment, the cutter acts as an upstream safeguard for the most expensive items in the processing line.
The sidewall cutter and MKII Tyre Baler combination is applicable across a broad range of commercial contexts. Its versatility and relatively compact footprint make it accessible to both smaller tyre collectors and large-scale dedicated recycling operations. Businesses looking at the full range of available tyre recycling equipment will find this two-machine pairing one of the most practical and cost-effective starting points for a professional processing line.
Truck tyre dealers and commercial vehicle service centres generate significant volumes of end-of-life tyres as a normal part of their business. Rather than paying for collection and disposal of these tyres, dealers using this system can process them on-site and generate revenue from both bale sales and sidewall by-products.
Specific benefits for this sector include efficient processing of customer take-off tyres at point of service, reduced disposal costs through baling and material recovery, and a single equipment solution that handles the diverse tyre sizes encountered in a typical commercial tyre dealership.
Commercial vehicle fleet operators are often required to manage large volumes of their own tyre waste on an ongoing basis. The cost of disposing of end-of-life tyres can be substantial, particularly for large fleets operating in logistics, construction, or public transport. Under the UK’s environmental permitting framework, operators storing significant volumes of end-of-life tyres on site may require a permit — guidance on which is available from the Environment Agency’s standard rules for end-of-life tyre storage and treatment.
This system enables fleet operators to process their own tyre waste efficiently and generate revenue from previously costly disposal. It also supports corporate sustainability objectives by diverting waste from landfill and creating recoverable material streams, while helping to maintain clean and well-organised maintenance facilities.
For businesses whose primary activity is tyre recycling, this system offers a streamlined processing workflow that handles mixed tyre types without requiring separate production lines. The protection it provides to shredding equipment is particularly valuable for businesses operating high-value granulation or crumb rubber lines, where unplanned shredder downtime has a direct and significant impact on revenue.
The multiple revenue streams available — bale sales, sidewall sales, and in some cases shredded tread material — give professional recyclers the flexibility to adapt their output mix to market conditions.
One of the distinguishing features of this processing system is the commercial value it extracts from truck tyre sidewalls, which in other workflows are simply an additional waste stream. The agricultural market for these materials is well-established and provides a consistent demand that recycling operators can rely upon.
Truck tyre sidewalls have long been used in agricultural settings as silage covers. Their robust construction, resistance to weathering, and large surface area make them well suited to this application, and their low cost relative to manufactured alternatives has made them a popular choice among farmers.
Silage Protection: Sidewalls placed over silage clamps help maintain anaerobic conditions essential for effective fermentation and long-term storage, protecting feed quality and reducing wastage.
Durability: The thick rubber construction of truck tyre sidewalls is inherently resistant to tearing, UV degradation, and the mechanical wear associated with repeated handling in agricultural environments.
Size Advantage: Compared to car tyre sidewalls, truck tyre sidewalls offer a substantially larger coverage area per unit, making them more practical for covering large silage clamps and reducing the number of individual pieces required.
Farmer Preference: Agricultural customers actively seek out truck tyre sidewalls for this purpose, and the supply of quality, cleanly cut sidewalls is generally absorbed readily by the farming market.
Revenue Opportunity: Consistent demand from the agricultural sector creates a reliable, predictable income stream for tyre recyclers operating this system, directly offsetting operating costs.
Beyond silage covers, truck tyre sidewalls find a range of additional uses on farms and in rural settings. They are used as livestock feeding barriers and to protect equipment from impact damage, as containment borders for storage areas, and as low-cost solutions for erosion control and drainage management. This breadth of application further strengthens the demand for cleanly separated sidewall material.
Setting up the sidewall cutter and MKII Tyre Baler combination on a site requires some thought about layout and material flow. A well-configured processing line minimises operator movement, reduces handling time, and ensures that neither machine becomes a bottleneck. The following guidance reflects best practice based on operational experience across multiple installations.
Optimal site setup involves positioning equipment to support a logical, linear flow of material from incoming tyres through to finished bales and sorted sidewalls:
Input Stage: An organised tyre reception and storage area provides a consistent feed of incoming truck tyres to the processing line, preventing backlogs and ensuring the cutter is always supplied with material.
Cutting Stage: The sidewall cutter should be positioned to allow easy loading of whole tyres and clear separation of the two output streams — sidewalls and tread sections — without cross-contamination or unnecessary handling.
Separation Area: Adequate space between the cutter and the baler allows operators to sort sidewalls into a collection area for agricultural sale and direct tread sections efficiently towards the baling stage.
Baling Stage: The MKII Tyre Baler should be positioned to allow straightforward loading of tread sections and easy ejection of completed bales for collection or storage.
Output Storage: Designated areas for finished bales and sorted sidewalls ensure that the end products of the process are stored appropriately and are readily accessible for collection or sale.
The day-to-day operational sequence follows a clear, repeatable pattern that can be adapted to match available labour, tyre volumes, and shift patterns:
Incoming truck tyres are received, sorted, and staged in the input area ready for processing. Each tyre is then fed through the sidewall cutter, which separates the sidewall from the tread section in a single rapid operation. The separated sidewalls are directed to a collection area for sale to agricultural customers, while the tread sections are moved to the baling stage. The MKII Tyre Baler compacts the tread sections into dense 900–1,000kg bales, which are then staged in the output area ready for onward transport. Completed bales are prepared for collection and dispatch, and the sidewall stock is managed according to demand from farming customers.
The effectiveness of this equipment combination is supported not just by individual operator accounts but by the experience of multiple businesses that have integrated these two machines into their operations. Across different scales of operation and varying tyre volumes, the system has consistently delivered the results described in this case study.
A number of customers now operate the sidewall cutter and MKII Tyre Baler together on their premises and have found them to be highly effective at managing and reducing tyre waste. The combination consistently delivers operational efficiency through streamlined processing that reduces both time and labour requirements, along with equipment reliability through the robust construction of both machines. Operators report multiple income streams from processed materials, efficient use of available site space, and strong overall satisfaction with the system’s performance in real-world conditions.
For operators who wish to see the equipment in action before making a purchasing decision, on-site visits to existing installations can be arranged. These demonstrations allow prospective customers to observe the machines performing under normal production conditions, speak directly with existing users about their operational experience, assess how the system would integrate with their specific site requirements, and evaluate the potential return on investment for their individual operation.
Understanding how this system compares with the alternatives it replaces — or competes with — helps operators make an informed decision about the best processing approach for their circumstances. For operations that deal exclusively with truck tyres and prefer a dedicated solution, it is worth reviewing the Gradeall Truck Tyre Baler as an alternative starting point, though the MKII combination will generally be the preferred choice wherever mixed tyre streams are involved.
Traditional debeading systems remove the steel bead from a truck tyre using extreme mechanical force. While effective, this approach comes with a range of operational drawbacks that the sidewall cutting method directly addresses:
Processing Speed: Debeading is a slow, force-intensive process. The sidewall cutter completes the equivalent task in a fraction of the time, enabling much higher hourly throughput.
Energy Efficiency: The mechanical force required by debeading equipment translates directly into high energy consumption. The sidewall cutter’s precision cutting action requires considerably less power, reducing operational costs across extended production runs.
Equipment Longevity: Debeading machinery is subject to rapid wear due to the extreme forces involved. The sidewall cutter operates with a fundamentally different mechanism, resulting in lower wear rates, fewer component replacements, and reduced maintenance downtime.
Material Quality: Forceful bead removal can damage the surrounding tyre material, reducing the quality of the resulting by-products. Clean sidewall cutting preserves the structural integrity of the sidewall for sale and the tread section for shredding or baling.
Maintenance Requirements: Lower wear and fewer high-stress components mean that the sidewall cutter requires less frequent maintenance intervention, keeping the processing line running consistently.
Operators who have previously invested in dedicated truck tyre balers alongside separate machines for car tyres will recognise the operational complexity this creates. The MKII Tyre Baler’s universal capability addresses this directly:
Versatility: A single machine handles the full range of tyre types, from car tyres through to pre-processed truck tyre sections, without mechanical adjustment or separate setups.
Space Efficiency: Replacing multiple single-purpose machines with one universal baler frees up significant floor space on site, which can be used for storage, additional processing stages, or simply improved operational flow.
Investment Efficiency: The capital cost of a single versatile baler is substantially lower than the combined cost of two or more single-purpose machines, improving the return on equipment investment.
Operational Simplicity: Training operators to use a single machine is more straightforward than managing multiple different systems, and maintenance is focused on fewer pieces of equipment.
Gradeall has been developing and supplying tyre processing equipment to recycling businesses across the globe for many years. The sidewall cutter and MKII Tyre Baler combination described in this case study represents the kind of practical, operationally focused solution that has become the hallmark of Gradeall’s approach to tyre recycling equipment.
Gradeall’s customer-focused sales team brings a combined total of over 100 years of experience in the recycling industry. This depth of knowledge means that customers receive advice based on genuine operational understanding, not simply product specification. Whether the requirement is for a single-site installation or a larger multi-machine configuration, the team can assess, specify, and support the right solution for each operation. For businesses that handle a range of large tyre types beyond standard truck sizes, Gradeall’s OTR tyre cutting equipment range provides further options that follow the same proven principles of sidewall separation and downstream baling.
Gradeall offers comprehensive technical expertise in tyre processing requirements, tailored equipment configurations to match individual operational needs, ongoing service and maintenance support to ensure consistent long-term performance, and a track record of innovative solutions that have set standards across the tyre recycling sector.
For businesses looking to improve the efficiency of their truck tyre processing, reduce reliance on costly debeading equipment, and generate additional revenue from sidewall by-products, the Gradeall sidewall cutter and MKII Tyre Baler combination offers a well-proven, practically supported solution.
To find out more, discuss your specific operational requirements, or arrange a demonstration at an existing customer site, contact the Gradeall tyre recycling team directly. Our integrated tyre processing systems are designed to deliver consistent performance in demanding commercial environments, combining operational efficiency with meaningful revenue generation from materials that would otherwise represent a disposal cost.
"In the past we had been using debeaders on truck tyres before shredding them. They were very large machines and would experience wear and tear due to the extreme force required to rip out a bead. Now with the sidewall cutter it cuts out the sidewalls in a fraction of a time with a lot less energy required, i can sell the sidewalls to farmers and bale the truck tyres in the MKII baler. That is very handy as i only need one baler for all types of tyres we have to deal with."
Owner - Waste Tyre Collector
Our customer focused sales team have a combined 100+ years in the recycling industry and have a deep understanding of the Tyre Recycling Industry and waste baling/compacting industry to ensure our customers are getting the best advice and products to improve recycling processes at their business.
Get in touch to see how we can help you today
+44 (0)28 8774 0484
[email protected]
This website uses cookies to enhance your experience. Some are essential for site functionality, while others help us analyze and improve your usage experience. Please review your options and make your choice.If you are under 16 years old, please ensure that you have received consent from your parent or guardian for any non-essential cookies.Your privacy is important to us. You can adjust your cookie settings at any time. For more information about how we use data, please read our privacy policy. You may change your preferences at any time by clicking on the settings button below.Note that if you choose to disable some types of cookies, it may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
Some required resources have been blocked, which can affect third-party services and may cause the site to not function properly.
This website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and ensure the site functions properly. By continuing to use this site, you acknowledge and accept our use of cookies.