End-of-life tire volumes in Australia have grown steadily alongside rising vehicle ownership, and the pressure to process that waste responsibly has intensified in recent years. State-level regulations restricting whole tire landfill disposal have pushed recycling operators to invest in equipment that reduces tire volume efficiently and produces output with genuine end-use value. When an Australian recycling operation required a proven, high-throughput tire baling system, they turned to Gradeall International, a specialist manufacturer of tire recycling equipment based in Dungannon, Northern Ireland.
This article covers what that shipment involved, how the equipment was selected, what the MK2 Tire Baler delivers in practice, and what other tire recycling operations can take from this installation.
Australia generates millions of end-of-life tires annually. The country’s combination of high vehicle ownership, vast geographic distances, and a network of regional processing operations creates a challenging logistics environment for tire waste management. Tires take up significant space in storage, and transporting whole tires over long distances is expensive relative to the weight of material being moved.
The regulatory environment has also shifted. Whole tire landfill disposal has been progressively restricted across Australian states and territories, mirroring policy directions seen in the UK, the EU, and parts of North America. Recycling operators have responded by investing in equipment that processes tires at the point of collection or at centralized facilities, reducing volume and creating material that can enter established secondary markets.
Several processing methods exist for end-of-life tires, including shredding, granulation, pyrolysis, and baling. Each has its place in the broader recycling ecosystem, but baling stands out for operations where consistent volume reduction, manageable capital cost, and practical output formats are priorities.
Tire baling compresses whole tires into dense, wire-bound bales. A bale produced by the MK2 Tire Baler contains up to 110 car tires. These bales are stackable, transportable, and compatible with established end-use applications. Where shredding and granulation require downstream processing to create a saleable product, bales can be used directly in civil engineering and construction applications, including retaining walls, embankments, and noise barriers, when they meet the PAS 108 specification.
For the Australian customer, the combination of volume reduction and direct end-use value made tire baling the right fit for their operation.
Investing in capital equipment of this type is not a straightforward decision. The right specification depends on daily throughput targets, the mix of tire types coming into the facility, the available space and infrastructure, and the technical capability of the team running the equipment. Getting the specification wrong creates operational problems that are expensive to correct.
The Australian operator came to Gradeall with a clear set of requirements. High throughput was the starting point. The facility needed to process a significant daily volume of tires without the baler becoming a production bottleneck. Reliability was equally important, given the distances involved in any service or support engagement. The operation also needed to handle a mixed tire stream, covering passenger car tires, light commercial vehicle tires, and truck tires within the same facility.
Processing a uniform run of passenger car tires in a baler is operationally straightforward. The challenge comes when the intake includes larger, stiffer truck tires with reinforced sidewalls. Whole truck tires resist compression, produce low-density bales, and place additional mechanical strain on the baling machine when fed in without any pre-treatment.
The solution that Gradeall’s team recommended was to pair the MK2 Tire Baler with a dedicated Truck Tire Sidewall Cutter. Removing the sidewalls from truck tires before baling allows them to compress cleanly, increases the number of tires per bale, and produces consistently dense, wire-bound output. For the Australian customer processing truck tires as a regular part of their intake, the sidewall cutter was a core component of the system, not an optional extra.
Any operation located far from its equipment manufacturer needs machines that are straightforward to run and maintain without requiring specialist engineers on short notice. Gradeall designs its equipment with practical daily operation in mind. Controls are consistent and clearly laid out, maintenance access is built into the machine design, and the commissioning process is structured so that a competent local team can bring the equipment online using the documentation and video content included with every shipment.
For the Australian customer, this was a practical requirement rather than a preference. Equipment that is difficult to operate or that requires frequent manufacturer intervention creates real operational risk when you are thousands of miles from the factory.
The MK2 Tire Baler is Gradeall’s flagship tire baling machine and one of the most widely exported pieces of equipment in the company’s range. It is built at Gradeall’s 5-acre manufacturing facility in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, drawing on over 40 years of engineering experience in waste management and recycling machinery. Equipment from this facility has been exported to more than 100 countries worldwide, covering markets from Iceland and Scandinavia to the Gulf States, South Africa, and the Americas.
For car tires, the MK2 produces bales containing up to 110 tires. These bales are compact, tightly wire-bound, and ready for transport or direct end-use. For truck tires that have had their sidewalls removed, the capacity is 26 to 32 tires per bale, depending on tire dimensions and sidewall treatment. The machine produces up to 6 bales per hour under standard operating conditions.
For any operation with defined daily throughput targets, output consistency matters as much as peak capacity. The MK2 delivers up to 6 bales per hour. At 110 car tires per bale, a standard working day produces a substantial volume of processed, compacted tire waste that is ready for storage, transport, or end-use.
The machine is designed to move between tire types within a single shift. An operator can run a batch of car tires, then switch to pre-cut truck tires, without mechanical adjustment. Throughput stays consistent, and bale quality remains predictable across both tire types. Baling wire is included with the machine on delivery, so production can begin immediately on commissioning without waiting for consumables to arrive separately.
Conor Murphy, Director of Gradeall International, notes: “The MK2 was designed for operations that need consistent output, day in and day out. It’s not complicated to run, but it’s built to a standard that handles the kind of sustained use a busy recycling facility puts it through.”
Australian recycling operations often handle tires from a wide range of sources, including passenger vehicles, commercial fleets, agricultural machinery, and mining and construction equipment. The MK2 handles the car and truck tire segment of that stream well. For larger OTR tires from mining or agricultural applications, Gradeall manufactures specialist OTR processing equipment, including OTR sidewall cutters and splitters, that addresses the specific challenges those tires present.
The hydraulic power unit, electrical connections, and all hoses are clearly labeled before shipment, reducing the time and specialist knowledge required to bring the machine online at its destination. This approach was developed over many international shipments and has been tested across a wide range of operating environments.
The Sidewall Cutter is sometimes viewed as secondary to the baler in a tire processing system, but it is the machine that unlocks the baler’s full potential when truck tires are part of the operation. Without sidewall removal, truck tires resist compression. They spring back inside the bale chamber, produce low-density output, and put greater mechanical stress on the machine over time.
With the sidewalls removed, truck tires compress cleanly. They fill the bale chamber more efficiently, produce dense and consistently dimensioned bales, and reduce wear on the baler itself. The Sidewall Cutter is not a preprocessing add-on in this context; it is the component that makes truck tire processing viable at volume.
The Truck Tire Sidewall Cutter shears the reinforced sidewalls from truck tires quickly and cleanly. The tires are then fed into the MK2 Tire Baler in the normal way. The sidewalls removed in this process can be collected separately and processed further, either through granulation or other downstream methods, which means nothing from the intake is wasted.
For the Australian shipment, both the MK2 Tire Baler and the Sidewall Cutter were shipped together in a single 20-foot standard container. The operator received a complete, integrated tire processing system in a single delivery, with everything needed to begin operations from day one of commissioning.
The practical benefit of running both machines together goes beyond individual output rates. The Sidewall Cutter creates a consistent feed of pre-treated truck tires that the MK2 can process at full efficiency. Without that pre-treatment step, the baler either cannot handle truck tires at all or does so at reduced density and output quality.
For operations that expect their tire mix to grow or shift toward a higher proportion of truck and commercial vehicle tires over time, investing in both machines from the outset creates a processing system that scales with the business rather than one that requires expensive retrofitting later.
Shipping industrial recycling equipment across international borders requires more than logistics coordination. The equipment must arrive in exactly the condition it left the factory. Assembly at the destination must be achievable by the customer’s own team without specialist tools or extended engineering support. And the documentation must be specific enough that a new operator can commission the machine without needing to call back to the manufacturer at every step.
Gradeall has refined its container loading and export shipping process over many years and hundreds of international shipments. That process is now a standard part of how every export order is handled, regardless of destination.
For the Australia shipment, a 20-foot standard shipping container was used. Before loading, the entire equipment set, including the MK2 Tire Baler, the Sidewall Cutter, the hydraulic power unit, baling wire, and all ancillary components, was laid out to plan the loading arrangement precisely. The objective was to fit everything in the container in a way that minimized reassembly work at the destination.
The MK2 Tire Baler was placed on a horizontal transport frame, which allows it to be loaded safely on its side without risk of damage during transit. The hydraulic power unit was loaded with all hoses and electrical connections pre-labeled for straightforward reconnection on arrival. All items were secured with ratchet straps to prevent movement during the sea voyage. Baling wire was included so the customer had everything needed to start production immediately after commissioning.
Every international shipment from Gradeall includes detailed setup instructions and instructional video content covering the full commissioning process. The labeling system on all connections, combined with the written and video documentation, is designed so that a competent mechanical team can bring the machine online without a Gradeall engineer physically present on site.
For customers who want additional support during commissioning, Gradeall’s team is available for remote assistance throughout the process. On-site engineer support can also be arranged for more complex installations. The company’s global service engineer network covers a wide range of markets, including Australia, and provides ongoing support beyond the initial commissioning phase.
The Australian customer’s investment in tire baling equipment was partly driven by sustainability objectives that are increasingly central to how recycling operations are assessed, funded, and licensed. Tire baling addresses several of the most significant environmental concerns associated with tire waste management in a direct and measurable way.
Whole tires stored in large quantities create fire risk, particularly in warm climates. They also create ideal conditions for disease-carrying insects. Reducing tire volume through baling cuts the storage footprint significantly, reduces fire load, and makes the overall waste stream substantially easier to manage safely and compliantly.
Beyond waste reduction, tire bales have established end-use applications that give them genuine value rather than simply displacing a problem. In civil engineering and construction, PAS 108-compliant tire bales are used in retaining walls, embankments, noise barriers, and flood defense structures. This creates a practical circular economy pathway for tire waste, turning a disposal liability into a material input for infrastructure projects.
Australia’s construction and civil engineering sectors present real opportunities for this route to market. As awareness of tire bale applications grows among project specifiers and contractors, demand for consistent, high-quality PAS 108-compliant bales is likely to increase. Operators who invest early in equipment capable of producing bales to that standard are better positioned to access those markets as they develop.
The tire recycling equipment range at Gradeall covers the full spectrum of processing options, from baling and sidewall cutting through to OTR tire splitting and rim separation. This means operators can build a system matched to their specific tire stream and end-use requirements, rather than adapting a generic setup that was never designed for their intake mix.
The Australia shipment illustrates several principles that apply to tire recycling operations in any market, not just Australia.
A baler and a sidewall cutter together form a more capable system than either machine on its own. If your tire intake includes truck tires in any significant volume, processing them without sidewall removal will limit your output rates and bale quality. The combination of machines addresses this directly and scales efficiently as intake volumes grow.
International shipping of industrial equipment is entirely manageable with the right preparation. The key factors are container loading that minimizes reassembly at the destination, clear labeling on all connections, and documentation specific enough to be useful on the factory floor without external support. Gradeall’s shipping process has been tested across more than 100 countries and continues to be refined with each shipment.
Specifying equipment for both current and near-future operational needs matters when you are making a capital equipment decision of this scale. The Australian customer chose a system capable of handling their existing tire mix while also accommodating volume growth and a shift toward a higher proportion of commercial vehicle tires over time. That forward planning protects the investment and avoids the cost of replacing or supplementing equipment as the operation grows.
The MK2 Tire Baler produces bales containing up to 110 car tires. For truck tires where the sidewalls have been removed using a Sidewall Cutter, the capacity is 26 to 32 truck tires per bale. The exact number varies depending on sidewall treatment and tire dimensions.
For operations processing only passenger car tires, a Sidewall Cutter is not required. Car tires compress well in the baler without pre-treatment. If your operation handles any significant volume of truck tires, a Sidewall Cutter will make a measurable difference to your output rate, bale density, and bale quality.
The MK2 is designed for passenger car and truck tires. For larger OTR tires from mining, agriculture, or construction applications, Gradeall manufactures specialist OTR tire processing equipment including OTR sidewall cutters and splitters. Contact Gradeall’s team to discuss the right configuration for your OTR tire stream.
Standard international shipments include the equipment, baling wire to allow production to start immediately on commissioning, fully labeled hydraulic and electrical connections, setup instructions, and instructional video content. Remote support during commissioning is available, and on-site engineer support can be arranged for more complex installations.
PAS 108 is the British standard for tire bales used in civil engineering and construction applications. Tire bales meeting this standard can be used in retaining walls, embankments, noise barriers, and flood defense structures. This provides an established and practical route to market for processed tire waste that goes beyond simple volume reduction.
Commissioning time depends on site preparation, electrical supply, and the technical experience of the local team. For a standard MK2 installation with all connections labeled and documentation available, a competent mechanical team typically brings the machine online within a few days. Gradeall provides support throughout this process.
Yes. A standard 20-foot shipping container accommodates both the MK2 Tire Baler and the Sidewall Cutter, together with the hydraulic power unit, baling wire, and ancillary components. Gradeall’s container loading process is designed to fit the complete system in a single container while protecting all equipment during transit.
Gradeall exports tire recycling equipment to more than 100 countries worldwide, covering markets from Australia and the Pacific through to Scandinavia, the Gulf States, South Africa, the Americas, and across Europe. Each shipment follows the same container loading and documentation standards regardless of destination.
The Australia installation demonstrates what a well-specified tire baling system looks like in practice: the right combination of machines for the tire stream, a shipping process designed to minimize installation time and complexity, and support that starts before the equipment leaves the factory and continues through commissioning and beyond.
Gradeall International manufactures the full range of tire recycling equipment at its facility in Dungannon, Northern Ireland. The MK2 Tire Baler and Truck Tire Sidewall Cutter are available individually or as a combined system. For operations handling OTR or agricultural tires, specialist processing equipment is also available within Gradeall’s range.
Contact Gradeall’s team to discuss your tire volumes, tire mix, and operational requirements. The team can advise on the right equipment configuration, container shipping options, and what to expect through the commissioning process.
← Back to news
Technology for Efficient Waste Management: A Practical Guide
Historic Tyre Dumps: Remediation Strategies for Legacy Waste Sites
Tire Recycling Certification: Global Standards and Quality Management
German Automotive Tyre Recycling Equipment for Operations
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.