Puna Taurima

The Tyrewise Fund

Puna Taurima, The Tyrewise Fund, has grant funding available to foster the market for recycled rubber materials in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The primary objective of the Tyrewise Fund is to invest in projects that lead to higher volumes of end-of-life tyres being processed into tyre-derived products for the domestic market, reducing the reliance on offshore markets.

The Fund seeks to support partnerships across research, industry and government to help bring technically sound, commercially viable and environmentally responsible products to the NZ market; ultimately creating long-term demand for tyre derived products from Tyrewise Registered Partners.

See successful applications

Funding categories

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Focused on research that has the ability to create real benefits from the use of tyre derived products. Applications supported through this stream may range from exploration of new ideas to demonstration projects that have been proven via research and development and now require larger scale trialing, monitoring and real-world demonstration to validate viability.

Funding may extend to projects aimed at ‘standardising’ and ‘normalising’ existing equipment and infrastructure that will ensure consistent, ongoing consumption of recycled rubber material.

EMERGING MARKETS

Supports innovative funding applications that are moving beyond the research phase and that can demonstrate both economic viability and sound environmental benefit for recycled rubber material.

Projects must clearly demonstrate how they will expand and strengthen markets for ranges of tyre derived products (TDP).

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Considers projects that improve the functionality, quality and enjoyment of public spaces and facilities.

This stream will have a particular focus on environmental and social benefits generated by the project.

What we're looking for:

Our expressions of interest (EOI) process is designed to identify projects that:

  • Clearly increase demand for recycled rubber materials in the domestic market.
  • Deliver measurable environmental benefits, such as lower emissions or improved resource efficiency e.g. increased longevity of pavements.
  • Support the development of technical standards, specifications or approvals for new products.
  • Align with the Government’s waste and resource  efficiency strategy, principles of the circular economy, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Tire Waste Hierarchy and Recovery Route Matrix, and/or improved resource efficiency.
  • Encourage strong collaboration across industry, government and research sectors.
  • Enable regional development, Iwi partnerships or social procurement outcomes.
  • Demonstrate readiness for commercialisation or real-world deployment.
  • Presents a scalable model with potential for broader market uptake.
  • Address adoption barriers such as public perception, technical feasibility or cost competitiveness.
Read Application guidelines
Submit an expression of interest

FAQs

Recycled rubber derived from tyres can be turned into a number of recycled rubber materials with a variety of uses such as: roading construction, playground surfacing, aggregate substitute etc.

However, the domestic market demand for tyre- derived rubber is around half the supply of tyre derived product available from the annual collected tonnage, projected at 60,000 to 65,000 tonnes.

Tyrewise has established the fund as a means of stimulating development of new products and the market for recycled rubber.

Funding comes from a portion of the tyre stewardship fees paid on tyres entering the New Zealand market.

It is anticipated that up to $7m will be available annually.

We welcome expressions of interest at any time.

After initial assessment, you may be invited to submit a more formal application.

The Tyrewise Grants Committee assesses applications and makes recommendations to the ASNZ Board.

The committee is make up of:

  • At least 1 independent expert
  • 2 members of the ASNZ board of trustees
  • 2-3 members from the scheme manager, 3R Group
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