Scrapping old tyres

[Cudzoziemiec]

Might become illegal this year under the Environment Bill 2019-21. No more old bike tyres in landfill, you'll have to get them recycled.

The disposal of bicycle tyres is a significant environmental issue with, Velorim suggesting that 30,500,000 tyres and 152,500,000 inner tubes are disposed of at landfill in the UK each year. As cycling is further promoted as a sustainable transport model and more tyres are used as a result, things understandably have to change.

The Environment Bill 2019-21(link is external), which is currently at the committee stage in the House of Commons, looks set to bring the disposal of used bicycle tyres into line with the laws which have made it illegal to dump motor vehicle tyres since 2003.

https://road.cc/content/tech-news/heres-how-recycle-your-tyres-and-tubes-274319
Can there really be 30 million bike tyres used each year in the UK? Seems unlikely to me. But I guess it adds an environmental argument to going tubeless!

[Dave_C]

I'd like to see the source of their estimate. 30500000 tyres in 15.25 million bikes renewing tyres every year. If there are 15 million bikes in the UK, are they all replacing tyres every year?

If these numbers are based on 15 million bikes, then I don't believe everyone replaces their tyres each year. Maybe a 10th might, but I have ten bikes in our family garage and I buy on average 2 tyres per year.

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[grams]

To get the inner tube number you need 3 million regular cyclists (which there aren't) replacing a tube every week. Bollocks.

I've sent them a question. Bet it's "we surveyed 10 mates and multiplied it by the population of the country".

[Cudzoziemiec]

I reckon those are the figures per decade! Five tubes per tyre seems suspicious too. Decimal point transposed two places to the right?

[robgul]

That figure can't be correct  . . . . There are only 9 million bikes in Beijing

IGMC

Rob

[Lightning Phil]

Those figures are made up nonsense

[Davef]

Surely the best way to estimate this is from tyre and tube sales, assuming customers are not building ever increasing stock piles.


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[arabella]

Last time I took a load of used bike tyres to the household waste site they told me to put them in the general landfill container 

I've been investigating cutting down to a strip and using as a replacement for rush seating, still working on joining up the ends. 

I've tried mending seats in the past using inners, but they're too stretchy.  They make handy garden ties though, until expiring.  As I end and mend, I'm just about on top of inners for volumes.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

They should make them re-cyclable.

[grams]

Not very enlightening reply:

These figures came from multiple sources.  They two key ones were:

1) A survey run through the ACT in 2018 aimed at the independent cycle shops (52m tyres and 260m inner tubes)
2) Using figures provided by the ACT, ONS, Cycling Week and various tyre manufacturers. (48m tyres and 195m inner tubes)

The issue that there is, is that no-one actually knows the size of the UK cycle market, the major players won’t release sales figures, nobody knows how many bikes there are actually in the UK.  There have been many attempts to run surveys to assess this, but they have all failed.  Given the variance on figures that we have generated, we have been deliberately conservative, it is possible that the scale of the problem is much, much bigger.

Not budging from my “we looked at a small unrepresentative survey and multiplied by a number we made up” theory.

[graculus]

Sounds like one for Radio 4's 'More or Less'.

[SiD]

Regardless of the figure it's an argument for tubeless.
Now tubeless on all bikes of all flavours.
When the hole gets too big for the sealant - simply plug it with one of those glued strip type things.
Can't recommend it enough.

[philip]

The TRA estimate about 3 billion miles cycled per year in the UK. If we used 30 million tyres to do that it would be 15 million pairs lasting about 200 miles. That seems wrong by at least an order of magnitude.  People replacing tyres due to wear probably account for less than 3 million tyres a year.

Various places quote 3 million bicycles sold per year in the UK. Assuming a similar number scrapped then that at gives at least 6 million tyres per year, larger than the number due to wear. Thus the majority of bicycle tyres disposed of are the tyres that came with the bike when new and were never replaced during the lifetime of the bike.

[fuaran]

Regardless of the figure it's an argument for tubeless.
Now tubeless on all bikes of all flavours.
When the hole gets too big for the sealant - simply plug it with one of those glued strip type things.
Can't recommend it enough.

But do tubeless tyres last as long as non-tubeless? If your tubeless tyre starts leaking, you could continue using it with a tube inside.

And what is the environmental impact of the sealant? What is it made of, and how much are you using?

[Davef]

Regardless of the figure it's an argument for tubeless.
Now tubeless on all bikes of all flavours.
When the hole gets too big for the sealant - simply plug it with one of those glued strip type things.
Can't recommend it enough.

But do tubeless tyres last as long as non-tubeless? If your tubeless tyre starts leaking, you could continue using it with a tube inside.

And what is the environmental impact of the sealant? What is it made of, and how much are you using?

From my brief experience they last as long, possibly longer. Longer because as normal tyres get to the end of their lives I find they become puncture prone and I change them. With tubeless they also probably get more punctures as they get older but you don’t notice. The sealant I use claims to be non hazardous nontoxic and environmentally friendly, but they would say that. You could use your tubeless with a tube but normally if it gets to that stage it is knackered.


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[Lightning Phil]

Not very enlightening reply:

These figures came from multiple sources.  They two key ones were:

1) A survey run through the ACT in 2018 aimed at the independent cycle shops (52m tyres and 260m inner tubes)
2) Using figures provided by the ACT, ONS, Cycling Week and various tyre manufacturers. (48m tyres and 195m inner tubes)

The issue that there is, is that no-one actually knows the size of the UK cycle market, the major players won’t release sales figures, nobody knows how many bikes there are actually in the UK.  There have been many attempts to run surveys to assess this, but they have all failed.  Given the variance on figures that we have generated, we have been deliberately conservative, it is possible that the scale of the problem is much, much bigger.

Not budging from my “we looked at a small unrepresentative survey and multiplied by a number we made up” theory.

Cycling Weekly as a source. Yep they’d know the right figure🤔

[salar55]

Not everyone has tyres that last 5000km, go light and its more like 1000km. Lots of innertubes littering the roadside, few people fix punctures nowadays. Perhaps they are getting noticed.

[The French Tandem]

In the mean time, how many motor vehicle tyres are being scrapped? Even more interestingly, how many tons of motor vehicle tyres are being scrapped in a year, vs how many tons of bicycle tyres?Considering that an average car tyre probably weight 30 or 40 bicycle tyres, considering that a car use up 4 tyres, and a lorry use up many more, when a bicycle use up only 2, I think the problem of bicycle tyres disposal is clearly a non issue.

A

[Cudzoziemiec]

I wouldn't say a non-issue but certainly a lesser issue. But motor vehicle tyres already are covered by whichever law it was mentioned above. Enforcement, as always, is the problem. I'd guess compliance is pretty much 100% from the trade, which probably accounts for almost all car tyres in the UK, but there are still some flytipped.

[SiD]

But do tubeless tyres last as long as non-tubeless? If your tubeless tyre starts leaking, you could continue using it with a tube inside.
And what is the environmental impact of the sealant? What is it made of, and how much are you using?

You're not aware that the tyre is puncturing/sealing unless you closely inspect it.
It no more durable in that regard but not having to change tubes is such a bonus.

The new Open Pro tubeless rim takes 30ml of latex sealant - non toxic by all accounts.

[cygnet]

So the consensus here appears to be that they've got their numbers wrong, but how has the scheme progressed?


Has anyone got a "depository" near them that they use? Or are they still landfill?a

[giropaul]

Regardless of the figure it's an argument for tubeless.
Now tubeless on all bikes of all flavours.
When the hole gets too big for the sealant - simply plug it with one of those glued strip type things.
Can't recommend it enough.

What have you done with all your non-tubeless- compatible wheels?

[BrundonBianchi]

If someone wants your bike, they will find a way to get it. The only way to prevent it is to keep ( at least) one hand on it at all times.

[rafletcher]

If someone wants your bike, they will find a way to get it. The only way to prevent it is to keep ( at least) one hand on it at all times.

Umm, wrong thread I think 

[fuzzy]

We have signed up for the Valorie recycling programme and just taken delivery of a cage.
We also use the Schalbe tube recycling scheme.
To date, 34kg of tubes have been sent to Schwalbe to be recycled into new tubes.