Transforming a tyre production site into a future ready logistics hub

Our client, a major international tyre manufacturer, decided to stop their operations. As the client wanted to sell the site to another company, it needed to be fully decommissioned and cleaned within a narrow timeframe to prepare the site for its new life.

Challenge – Time constraints 

Time pressure was the key challenge. The goal of our client was to sell a clean site, ready for other activities, as soon as possible. After the end of tyre production onsite mid May 2025, only a small team remained present onsite with limited technical knowledge of decommissioning activities. More than 100 machines had to be dismantled and removed within a very tight schedule. Some machines were still reusable at other plants, some needed to be dismantled properly to enable recycling of the materials as much as possible.

At the same time, safety was a top priority for the client, including the prevention of any new environmental pollution during dismantling works. The project entailed soil investigations, remediation of historical pollution, preparation of mandatory asbestos documentation, and coordination of multiple contractors for dismantling.

Solutions – Speed and efficiency

TAUW provided a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in soil, environmental management, asbestos, site redevelopment, site transactions and health & safety. We carried out soil assessments and identified historical contamination of mainly mineral oils and heavy metals. The polluted soil was excavated and transported to a nearby treatment centre for cleaning and reuse.

The team conducted a full asbestos inventory and prepared the attestation required for the transfer of the building. Residual asbestos that posed no risk was managed rather than removed unnecessarily. By doing this, excessive costs were avoided, but still a safe building can be transferred.  Our consultants led the tendering process for machine dismantling and scrapping, to help reduce costs and facilitate the follow-up of the job. We coordinated the entire decommissioning process and managed the contractors and subcontractors on site, carrying out the due diligence on safety and supporting the permitting process.

Partnership – Trustworthiness

The client selected TAUW based on its previous experience with us on a similar project in another country, where we were valued for our integrated approach and reliability. On this project also, we worked as a trusted partner and the client is interested in further cooperation with us at its other European sites.

“We greatly valued TAUW’s support throughout this project. Their professional approach, ability to keep the project on schedule, and practical advice gave us confidence at every stage. Their integrated approach, combined with experience from a similar project with us in another country, was a real added value. And worth to be mentioned: an eight-month full plant decommissioning without accident or environment incident.”

Impact – Harmony with nature 

The site was successfully cleaned and made ready for sale.  Only contaminated materials were removed and existing structures and installations were left intact where possible. That avoided unnecessary demolition, reduced traffic movements and limited the use of new construction materials. An impressive 97% of materials from the site was recycled or reused.  The site is now clean and ready for reuse as a logistics warehouse.  

We aim to quantify the positive impact of our projects through the project’s handprint. Below, we demonstrate how this project makes sustainability tangible and feasible by using a set of predefined TAUW ESG indicators.

TAUW supported with the inventory, design and execution of the remediation and dismantling works after the closing of the site's activities. 

ESG	TAUW’s ESG Indicator	Impact
Environmental	Soil & Groundwater remediation  Climate mitigation -  Resource reduction	3,100 tons (+/- 10%) of soil  Reuse of 750 tons (transferred within group) dismanteled machinery and molds  Recycle of 1850 tons scrapped dismanteled machinery and molds
Governance	ESG management execution	Health, Safety & Environmental support for the closing of a site of 39,000 m²  Strategic support in transferring the building at the highest possible value with minimal demolition.