So there are many things that can be recycled. Some take precedence when it comes to level of importance because:
- 1. It’s not from a sustainable source
- 2. It’s not bio-degradable or perhaps it takes ages to breakdown
- 3. It’s a big foot when it comes to leaving carbon footprints
Which leads us to the topic of the day – tyres! It’s important for us to recycle tyres because tyres:
- • Though obtained from the sustainable source of rubber trees, the sustainability of the trees comes at the expense of virgin rainforests that are cleared to make way for such plantations.
- • Used tyres are hazardous to both our health and the environment’s if not disposed off with care. With an estimated 250 million waste tires discarded each year, the risk of tyre pile burnings creating a significant mass of toxic melted rubber that pollutes the air, land and groundwater becomes ever more real. To top that off, careless disposal of waste tyres end up delightful breeding holes for disease carrying mosquites!
- • One of the heavy weights in leaving carbon footprints, did you realise how it takes seven gallons of oil to produce just one tyre? And how about the five gallons of butadiene and styrene gasoline that is required to form the substances that tires are made out of, or the two gallons of gas used to generate the energy needed to manufacture the tires?
Hardly something to overlook now don’t you agree? Tyres- it isn’t just about selecting the right ones for our cars/bikes/planes etc and maintaining them, it’s also about how it’s made and how it’s ‘passed on’. From start to finish, the entire lifespan of a tyre is vital to our sustainability.
