Turning What You Ride Into What You Ride On

Bicycling is commonly seen as an environmentally-friendly form of transportation, recreation and exercise.  Some people ride their bikes for exactly that reason.  And, for the most part, bicycles are less damaging to the planet than many other things, including motorized vehicles.  But there are two bike parts that, too often, end up in landfills.

I am talking about bicycle tires and tubes.  Some of us re-use tubes that have been patched one too many times:  as tie-downs, for example, or underneath clamps to prevent them from slipping and marring a finish.  And, for a time, Pedro's made "Blowout bags" partially from re-cycled inner tubes.  Those bags strapped underneath a rider's saddle and were used to--you guessed it--carry a spare inner tube, patch kit, tire levers and maybe a small multi-tool.

The problem with old tires and tubes is that although they crack from drying out (which is how many Blowout bags, including two I used, met their endings), they don't decompose quickly in the way of some other materials. 

Since 2002, England and Wales have had a law forbidding the disposal of automotive and agricultural tires in landfills. But, interestingly, bicycle tires and tubes were exempt from the law although, according to chemical engineers, they are nearly identical in composition to car tires.

Five years ago, Russ Taylor founded Velorim to bridge this inequity.  He comes from Staffordshire, known for its bull terriers, so it is perhaps not a surprise that he is forward-thinking and ambitious.  He realized that all of those tires and tubes that were being sent to landfills--or overseas--for disposal could be put to better use, not only for consumer products, but in public works.  

As an example, Velorim has developed a process that is now being used to turn pellets from reclaimed rubber goods into a porous material that can be used to lay cycle paths in urban or rural landscapes.  This not only re-uses those old tires and tubes, but also lessens the need to make new asphalt or concrete, both of which involve processes that are harmful to the environment--to say nothing of the fact that asphalt is made from petrochemicals.

So, the tires you now ride could be rolling over...the tires you used to ride.  Somehow that's fitting in more ways than one.