This article was originally published in Australian Waste Management Review. Please see the original article here.

From engineering to tyre recycling

With decades of engineering experience, Mick Carroll has built a tyre recycling operation powered by TANA shredders and a commitment to circular outcomes.

For Mick Carroll, tyre recycling wasn’t a leap into the unknown. It was the logical next step in a career that has spanned more than 30 years across engineering, manufacturing and the tyre industry.

Before establishing Carroll Engineering Services, Mick owned a successful engineering company in central western New South Wales, building equipment and solving mechanical problems long before he ever processed a single end-of-life tyre.

When he later moved to the Gold Coast and built several new business ventures, the same hands-on, practical mindset followed him.

That background shaped the way he approached the growing challenge of tyre disposal. “I was looking to try and get rid of my own scrap tyres,” he says. “So, we built our own machines and went from there.”

Building a business around circular solutions

What began as a solution for his own tyre stores quickly grew into a full-scale recycling operation capable of handling everything from small passenger tyres to the enormous earthmover tyres used on mine sites.

Today, Carroll Engineering Services processes about 15,000 tonnes of tyres each year. The material is broken down and transformed into products that feed directly back into Australian infrastructure.

“We put a lot of it down into a fine powder, and we sell it back to bitumen companies, and they put it back in the roads,” Mick says. “We sell it to soft fall playground companies too.”

The company’s expansion has been steady and strategic. What began in Brisbane has extended to Townsville and Perth, driven largely by demand from mining companies seeking reliable, transparent recycling solutions.

“It definitely creates a lot of business for us,” Mick says. “We’ve got a couple of big contracts now with Rio Tinto, BHP, companies like that.”

Mining tyres now make up about 70 per cent of the company’s intake. Their size and durability make them notoriously difficult to process, but they also make the case for robust machinery. That’s where the TANA Shark shredder comes in.

Why the TANA Shark became the shredder of choice

Carroll Engineering Services now operates two TANA Sharks as its primary shredding units, and Mick estimates he has purchased about six over the years as the business has grown and upgraded.

His decision to stay with the brand is grounded in long experience and a lot of trial and error. “We’ve tried nearly every other brand,” he says. “These just seem to work best on tyres. They’re pretty tough.”

The TANA units do the heavy lifting as the first step in the company’s processing line. They break down tyres of all sizes into a manageable shred that can then be refined into smaller fractions. For a business handling thousands of tonnes of material each year, the reliability of that first step is everything.

Mick puts it plainly. “It mainly comes down to cents per tonne of shredding,” he says. “With the TANA, it’s a lot cheaper.”

Reliable machines for tyre recycling operations

He describes the TANA machines as easy to operate and maintain. The after sales support is also reliable. “They’ve got guys up here we can call on if needed,” he says. “They’ve been pretty good.”

Over the years, Carroll Engineering Services has worked with Tana as the machines have evolved. The company’s tyre mix, especially the large mining tyres, has required some adjustments.

“We’ve done some modifications,” Mick says. “Over the years, Tana has upgraded their machines to suit this specific industry. Different designs, different design parameters on the machine.”

Recycling that keeps growing

That willingness to adapt has mattered, since tyre recycling is not a static business. The material stream changes depending on contracts, geography and the shifting priorities of major industries.

When Carroll Engineering Services expanded into Townsville and Perth, it did so because that’s where the tyres were.

The mining sector’s growing interest in sustainability has also helped. Mick has seen a noticeable shift in recent years. “A few of them are starting to come on board, which is good,” he says. “There’s still a lot of tyres that get dumped or buried on mine sites, but recycling is slowly gaining momentum.”

That momentum is tied to the end markets. Without a reliable outlet for recycled rubber, the economics of tyre recycling simply don’t work. Mick is clear about why his business has focused on bitumen and soft fall products. “We needed an end market where we could consistently sell our product,” he says. “In Australia, the growing trend seems to be selling rubber into bitumen roads.”

There’s a quiet satisfaction in knowing that the roads he drives on may contain material his company processed. “Yeah, it’s good,” he says with a laugh when asked.

Carroll Engineering Services is now planning to increase production at its Townsville site and open a second outlet in Western Australia. With the volume of tyres generated across the country – particularly in mining – Mick doesn’t see supply becoming an issue.

“You’re never going to be out of stock,” he says. “There’s plenty of them.”

Proven by years of daily use

Through all of this growth, the TANA shredder has remained a constant. Mick’s endorsement is grounded in years of daily use, breakdowns avoided, and tonnes processed.

“We’ve been using them for about five, six, seven years now. We’ve tried nearly every other brand, and these just seem to work best on tyres. They’re easy to operate, easy to maintain, and we’ve had no troubles with them,” he says.

“For us, it comes down to cents per tonne, and they’re a lot cheaper. We’ve been pretty happy with them … we’re on our sixth one, after all.”