In another step towards their “cradle to cradle” philosophy, German tire giant, Schwalbe Tires has developed the pilot Schwalbe Recycling System for used bicycle tires. And, independent bike dealer, Ingo Ruhland of Radl Ruhland, couldn’t be happier.
You see, Ruhland has been collecting used tires in a former beer cellar for the last 23 years. That’s a long time to be saving tires… long enough to have collected 20,000 tires to be exact.
His hopes were that one day, a tire company would eventually step up and actually recycle the tires as opposed to incinerate them.
His dreams came true when Schwalbe Tires agreed to feed his used tire collection to their recycling program, aptly named the Schwalbe Recycling System. Ruland said, “I always hoped that one day some company in the tire industry would manage to offer real recycling. Now that has worked – a big thanks to Schwalbe.”
When Ruland heard about Schwalbe’s tire recycling program over the Summer of 2022, he was elated. He said, “I rejoiced because this was exactly the information I had been waiting for… for 23 years”. He also says the “tires are not trash, they are recyclables. And we should be more concerned in all areas to recycle such material instead of always mining new raw material”.
From the Press Release:
- Drop off your used tires at a participating dealer.
- Transports the full recycling box to their recycling partner, Pyrum Innovations.
- Shredding of used tires to rubber granulate, steel, fabric
- Pyrum Thermolisys: Rubber granulate is converted into secondary raw materials (in a pyrolysis oven at 700 degrees celsius under oxygen exclusion
– Process gas: supplies the complete plant with electricity.
– Pyrolysis oil: Used in the chemical industry as a substitute for crude oil
– Pyrolysis coke: (rCB) goes to step 5 - Recycled into new Schwalbe products
