Ban on disposal of bike tyres in landfill moves closer

That is the kind of approach we are working on, which is why all Velorim Centres are bike shops!

Russ @ Velorim wrote:

That is the kind of approach we are working on, which is why all Velorim Centres are bike shops!

However, we'd like to see all bike shops be Velorim Centres or equivalent.

We are already working with some cycle tyre manufacturers to enable them to use our scheme to recycle their tyres (or the ones you replace by buying their product) at their cost. It's not up and running yet, but it is in the pipeline.

Firstly over 50% of all tyres are incinerated or used as fuel (e.g. cement making), either here in the UK or by exporting them overseas for the same, which I think you will agree is not environmentally friendly and does not fit the ethos of cycling. Second, the steel wire that is present in most bicycle tyres in the bead-edge, does not get cut by a normal car tyre machine, such that it then wraps itself around the machine cutting head (like hair on your vacuum cleaner), jamming it completely.

The only way to remove it and get the machine working again is to completely dismantle it (yes, really!!!), e.g. every single cutting tooth needs taken out, wire removed and then fully reassembled. It cannot be simply cut it out (like hair) as the steel is so hard it dents most cutting tools. We have developed a specialised machine that will rip bicycle tyres, including the steel wire, apart so the materials can then be recycled.

The reason we founded Velorim was because we found out through running a bicycle recycling charity that over 7 million tyres and over 40 million inner tubes go to landfill in the UK every year. As individuals who are respectful of the environment, we decided to do something about it, which is why Velorim was born.
There are 2 things you can do to recycle your tyres. First, go to the Velorim web site and search for your nearest Velorim Centre and take your tyres there so that we can recycle them.
If you don't have a Velorim Centre near enough to you, you can send us the details of your own local cycle shop via the Contact Page. We will then contact them and ask them to join the scheme so you can recycle your tyres through them.

Dear Russ.

I've just checked your site for my nearest recycling point. If what I saw was typical, your coverage is totally inadequate. I live in Havant, in the densly populated SE corner of Hampshire, and my nearest recycling centre is shown as nearly 17 miles away !!! The 'nearest' site is in Gosport, down a heavily populated and congested peninsular, so not en-route to anywhere either. That is most definitely not national coverage. I could waste a gallon of petrol, and use an hour and a quarter of my life, and then spend 2 or 3 quid.  Don't see that happening somehow. You don't even have a site in Portsmouth, a city of a quarter of a million people.

The bin beckons !

Hi Heather.
Drop us an email to info [at] velorim.co.uk with details of your nearest local bike shop and we will invite them to join the scheme at your request. Then you will only have a short journey!

Yes, these are all good uses for inner tubes. However, our research shows that these re-use applications along with the making of craft products, etc. account for only a fraction of 1% of the waste inner tubes we throw away every year.

Interesting point that... I'd say there are not many tyres over 600grams, and actually an average weight of 500grams would be a fairer average. That's over 18million tyres a year! 

I suspect a bit of hyperbole there... calculated on x amount of bike sold, two sets of tyres and tubes a year = x tonnes.

But in reality we all know that other than hardened enthusiasts, and over enthusiastic skidding kids, most bikes die using the same tyres they were born with. 

Figures on the actual number of tyres is difficult to quantify due to the fragmented nature of the cycle market, but we do know that it is significantly over 7 million per annum. 

When you buy a product, whether it is a fridge, computer, car, bike or just a tyre, the manufacturer and the buyer of that product both have an obligation to responsibly recycle or reprocess that item when it has reached the end of its useful life. When you take your car to have a new tyre fitted, you pay about £5 or more in fees to cover the cost of recycling your old one.
Velorim, along with the cycle trade, are following that same approach. It is our intention that in the future manufacturers will absorb the cost of recycling as part of their environmental responsibility.

We have been working with several Universities to test numerous tyre brands and they all contain the same consistent type of rubber. We have also developed methods to separate and recover those materials to enable them to be recycled.
Yes there is a cost to recycling, but it is far less that what it will cost us if we do not do it.

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

I'm sorry, but can I check my understanding here.

A private organisation is lobbying government to make disposing of bike tyres in any other way than paying the private organisation money, illegal? And from the tyres that people pay to deposit with said profit making organisation, they will recycle these for profit?

Have I got that right? 

Seems all kinds of fcuked up to me. 

 

Seems like a perfectly acceptable thing for a company to do. They are being very transparent about it. If it's in the public interest (which in my view it is, but we have a government which should aggregate the public interest) the government should act accordingly.

There are countless other examples where the government has legislated that for-profit companies must be used. Car insurance for example.

If they were privately lobbying for something that was against the public interest, or lobbying the MPs of a specific party in particular, I would be concerned but they don't appear to be doing that.

Oh OK... I've clearly been looking at life all wrong. 

Based on the success of most recycling initiatives, I am dubious as to the level of public benefit this could provide. 

You live already in a society that on average recycles 50-60% of your household waste, with technologies developed by many different private organisations. We believe that the waste we generate as cyclists should also be recycled, particularly as we claim to participate in the greenest form of transport, but have so far conveniently ignored the rubber waste that the activity of cycling generates.
We now have the technology to change that and by making cycling 'greener', we set the standard for other industries and activities to clean up their act also. 

32kg is as few as 7 high capacity e-bike batteries. If they develop a fault, they can spontaneously ignite and no fire extinguisher will put out the fire. There have already been e-bike shops in the UK who have had suffered serious damage as a result of an e-bike battery blaze.
Disposing of a Lithium battery in the household waste is extremely dangerous. The manufacturer of some of our equipment also make processing equipment to recycle these batteries and it is the size of a small steel container, but with side panels thicker than a Challenger Tank to contain the blast when one explodes. Because they are dangerous, they have to be stored and transported in special containers with specially trained drivers.
As Velorim already have over 600 centres, all in cycle shops, across the UK, last month we launched our battery recycling service to the cycle industry. We provide the safe storage containers with built-in fire suppressent material to the store and collect waste batteries regularly to minimise the risk and responsibly reprocess these items.
If you have a faulty e-bike battery that you need to dispose of, send us details (via our Contact Page) of your local bike shop where you bought the bike from. We will contact them to get them engaged on the scheme and let you know so you can take your battery to them to be recycled.

those are made up of recyclable metal alloys though.

I tried the same, they said they didn't accept bicycle tyres but if it was a wheel with a tyre on it they would accept it! Now all I need it about 20 scrap wheels