Wastefront partners with Gateway Resources to supply used tyres for Sunderland recycling plant

Backed by energy giant Vitol, Wastefront secured planning permission in January 2022 to build the £100 million tyre recycling plant in Sunderland, which is set to be commercially operational by 2024. Once at full capacity, the plant is designed to be able to manage 20 per cent of the UK’s total ELTs through processing 80,000 tonnes annually. Gateway Resources will supply Wastefront with nearly 10 million tyres every year.

That figure corresponds to a substantial volume of the total tyres that are currently exported from the UK abroad yearly. And therefore the announcement it positioned as a “crucial” part of “eliminating the UK’s waste tyres export altogether, by creating a local solution to a global problem”.

Wastefront is also pitching itself against the burning of ELTs in cement kilns, adding that Wastefront will use commercial operating technologies to convert the ELTs received from Gateway into biofuels and recovered carbon black. According to the company, Wastefront’s recovered carbon black will result in an 80 per cent reduction in total emissions – through its replacement of virgin carbon black in tyre production – with “key tyre manufacturers” already lining up to purchase this recycled material at source.

Mainland Europe plant touted

Following the execution of the supply agreement for the Port of Sunderland plant, Wastefront and Gateway have also signed an MOU to work together towards implementing an additional ELT supply agreement for a potential Wastefront plant in continental Europe, which is under review.

Wastefront CEO, Vianney Valès, comments: “Our agreement with Gateway Resources is a key part of our mission – tackling the scourge of ELTs at scale and pace, whilst creating a truly circular economy in tandem. It is unparalleled both in the UK and Europe. Such an agreement suddenly gives the UK a world leading position in the resolution of this serious waste issue, and we are proud to spearhead such significant progress.

“We cannot continue with our dependency on new and scarce materials whilst continuing to burn existing materials with devastating and immediate environmental consequences. To solve the problem, Wastefront is proposing a solution that is both circular and at scale. Gateway Resources is the right partner, able to aggregate the large volumes of ELT that we will recycle into tyres or other valuable products. This agreement is yet another key element of the ecosystem that Wastefront is creating to tackle the problem of ELT.”

Gateway Resources Director, Soham Khemka, comments: “The core ethos of our company has always been economically sound and environmentally conscious trading. Our agreement with Wastefront reflects this commitment, with their scaled solution for one of the significant environmental problems of our time – the burning of raw materials – paving the way for the elimination of unnecessary exports from the UK altogether.

“We have long been engaged with regulators to find a local, more sustainable solution, to replace our existing shipping routes for ELTs across the world. Wastefront is the first player to tackle the ELT problem at scale across Europe, with the significance of their plans having a massive impact on the industry. Wastefront is going head on with the necessary evils of exporting waste, finally rendering it unnecessary and truly building a circular economy both at home and abroad.”

Gateway Resources Gateway Resources is an independent trading house based in Dubai, UAE. It is involved in the procurement, logistics, financing and distribution of a diverse portfolio of commodities pertaining to the manufacturing and recycling industry. Gateway Resources has established trade partners in the UK, EU, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore and India.