How does a responsible society deal with waste streams in the most sustainable way? How does it dispose of plastic waste, electronics, organic material and tires?
The most common way to deal with waste is to apply the waste hierarchy – a set of priorities for the efficient use of resources.
The best solution – reduction – avoids waste as much as possible by reducing consumption. For tires, this would imply a reduction of vehicle traffic. Bearing in mind current global economic growth, especially outside the EU and USA, this option does not seem very realistic in the near future.
Second best would be to reuse, wholly or in part, like we do with glass bottles. For tires, this is called retreading. – New rubber tread is laid on the inner body of the tire, the casing. Retreading gives the tire a new life. Regardless of the quality of the casing, a tire can be retreaded only a few times. The tire is scrapped when the casing is worn out.