Dr WOODRUFF - We have 4000 to 5000 tyres that we generate each year, and we have a stockpile of 12 000 to 15 000 legacy tyres at Longford. They are a huge health risk and fire hazard to the environment. Tyre-derived fuels are the best recycling outcome the world has at the moment for tyres, and they're used in cement production in many other countries. Cement Australia is looking at tyre-derived fuels, and they are a lower greenhouse gas-emitting heating fuel than the Fingal coal that they truck across Tasmania by rail. You've allocated $3 million towards a rubber crumbing plant to help with tyre recycling, but it seems that ignores this work that Cement Australia is doing, trying to bring its emissions down to net zero. Will you work with Cement Australia at Railton and help them find a solution for tyres and cement that makes better use of the tyres that we already have as legacy waste?
Mr JAENSCH - Yes.
Dr WOODRUFF - Good. It sounds like $3 million towards a rubber crumbing plant might not be the best use of our money, in terms of getting rid of the tyres we've got.
Mr JAENSCH - As you're aware, we've committed $3 million to partner with industry through our Waste Tyre Reprocessing Grant Program. We've run a public process to attract proposals from people who are willing to co invest in doing this at a commercial or industrial scale. That process is closed. There's been an assessment made. We'll be announcing successful outcomes from that program very soon.
The program is about developing the capacity in Tasmania to process waste tyres into forms that can be used for a range of different purposes, which may include road building but could also include use in tyre derived fuels and industrial processes, as you were talking about. We're confident that we're across the matters that you've raised. We've certainly engaged with Cement Australia on options that it's exploring and with others who have promoted to us the benefits of tyre derived fuels. I expect that some form of offtake as tyre derived fuel will be an outcome of our grants process. But we've got a little way to go yet to finalise the outcome of that grant program and I look forward to announcing that soon.