How does a responsible society deal with waste streams in the most sustainable way – may it be plastic waste, electronics, organic material or tyres?
The most common way to illustrate this is through the waste hierarchy, which consists of 5 options ranging from the most to the least beneficial form of waste management.
The best solution, reduction, is to avoid waste as much as possible by reducing consumption. In terms of tyres, this would imply a reduction of vehicle traffic. With the current global economic growth, especially outside the EU and the USA, this option does not seem very realistic in the near future.
Second best would be to reuse, fully or partly, as we do with glass bottles. In terms of tyres, this is called retreading. – New rubber tread is laid on the inner body of the tyre, the casing; and in this way, the tyre gets a new life. Retreading can only be done a few times – depending on the quality of the casing – and in the end, the tyre will need to be scrapped when the casing is worn out.