Triple-bottom-line recycling benefits assessment for Pearl Global

RPS helped Pearl Global demonstrate its environmental, social and economic credentials by undertaking a triple-bottom-line assessment.

Assessing the impacts and benefits of tyre recycling

Pearl Global is an Australian recycling and circular economy company. It converts end-of-life tyres into energy and high-value raw materials.

Its operation offers a solution to the tyre waste problem. If not managed correctly, used tyres can create economic, health and environmental issues by taking up valuable landfill space, causing damage to landfill liners or releasing toxics gases and chemicals when burnt.

So far, Pearl Global’s Queensland facility has processed more than two million used tyres.

Using its patented thermal process, the facility produces tyre-derived fuel oil, and recycled products with a variety of applications, most notably carbon char which can be used to produce a low-carbon asphalt product.

With plans to expand its operation, the company wanted to get a more comprehensive understanding of the value and impacts of its business. It needed independent, quantifiable data to demonstrate its sustainability and greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits. It wanted to understand the triple-bottom-line impact it is making from an environmental, social and economic perspective.

RPS consultants determine quantifiable benefits

Pearl Global engaged RPS’ economics team to undertake a triple-bottom-line assessment of the use of its products in asphalt production.

Our consultants conducted three months of detailed research about the business, which included policy alignment analysis and benefits assessments. This comprehensive review allowed our consultants to give Pearl Global a clear picture of its environmental, social and economic impact with quantifiable figures.

RPS’ final report found the use of Pearl Global’s products in asphalt production resulted in a 24 per cent reduction in the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of the asphalt produced.

The production made a quantifiable impact in the reduction of waste through recycling. And the asphalt product also delivered a number of economic and safety benefits from avoided road accidents and road maintenance from more durable roads. Based on Pearl Global’s expansion plans, this is expected to be worth a total of $320 million in present value economic terms, or $73.5 million per year by 2054.

The triple-bottom-line assessment we undertook for Pearl Global is an example of the reporting mechanisms that can be used by companies to show value and transparency – particularly as more businesses seek to report GHG emissions, shift to a circular economy, and demonstrate their ESG credentials.

Images courtesy of Pearl Global.