Busting the Myths - The Case for Passenger
Tyre Retreading
 Historically,
the use of retreaded tyres for passenger vehicles has been
limited to their fitment as replacement tyres for family vehicles
at the budget end of the market. Their status as a "green"
product suitable for fitment to environmentally friendly vehicle
fleets has never really been discussed before.
However, the fact is that retreaded car tyres are highly
sustainable products. Retreading is highly environmentally
friendly and should be considered as the best practical environmental
option for tyre recycling. Unlike other forms of tyre recycling
or disposal, retreading does not simply defer the eventual
disposal of the tyre, but actively contributes towards reducing
the amount of tyres being used and hence saving valuable natural
resources. Every retread produced means one less new tyre,
thereby minimising the number of new tyres produced annually,
extending the life of the original product and saving substantially
on resources such as oil (a passenger retread requires 4.5
gallons less oil than a new tyre. For a truck tyre this figure
is 15 gallons).
The UK has two major manufacturers of passenger retreads
and these companies are now looking more closely at getting
their message across to fleet managers for whom sustainability
and the environment are key issues. However, even if the idea
of fitting retreads to your vehicle has occurred to you, it
is likely that you will have a number of questions as to their
suitability for fitment. Here we attempt to deal with some
of the frequently asked questions that arise, when retreaders
talk to potential buyers of retreaded tyres.
Retreads? Nobody actually uses them anymore, do they?
 Not
true. In fact, nearly half the truck and bus tyres on the
road in the UK have been retreaded and operate very safely.
In fact, all the major tyre manufacturers without exception
manufacture their tyres for multiple lives, meaning they are
designed to be retreaded. Indeed several leading tyre manufacturers
also operate their own retread plants in the UK. Retreads
are also used extensively on passenger cars throughout the
British Isles - not only for standard vehicles but for high
performance vehicles and even for motorsport.
Retreads are also used in aviation and are retreaded many
times. Every airline uses retreaded tyres and in fact over
90% of all aircraft tyres are retreads.
Can you drive at motorway speeds on retreads?
Of course you can. The idea that retreaded tyres can not
be used at normal road speeds is a complete myth. There is
no restrictions to the use of retreaded tyres on our roads
and they are fully legal in an MOT test. In fact, all passenger
retreads (with the exception of a few specialist winter and
off-road tyres) are speed rated at least to S (180 kmh - 112mph)
and many are rated as high as V (240 kmh - 149 mph).
What advantages can retreads offer in winter?
Throughout Europe the passenger tyre retreading industry
has been particularly successful in penetrating the market
for winter tyres. All the UK's leading manufacturers of passenger
retreads have excellent ranges of tyres for cold weather and
winter applications and have, for many years exported substantial
quantities of these into central European market and Scandinavia,
where changing over to cold weather tyres in the winter months
is the norm.
If you are looking for extra safety in the winter weather
but feel that switching to new winter tyres is too much of
an expense, then why not use a set of winter retreads. They
offer excellent performance and superb economy.
The quality of retreads is poor? How can I be expected
to drive on them?
The argument that the quality of retreaded tyres is in some
way sub-standard is not new. The image problem has existed
for many years and is a problem that the retreading industry
has had to cope with on an ongoing basis.
Has this been justified? Historically, probably yes - but
not any more. Today's retreads are high quality products manufactured
to strict quality standards on high-tech machinery. There
are many arguments to illustrate this, the most powerful of
which is the ECE 108 Standard, which has been mandatory in
the UK since January 2004 and which stipulates that all retreads
by law are now subject to the same type approval tests as
new tyres.
These involve endurance tests, commonly known as drum tests,
which are carried out at the tyre's approved load and speed
rating. A particularly strong argument in favour of retreading
was also provided by a report recently published by AEA Technology
on behalf of the DTI.
In particular, the report found that
a) There is no technical reason why the handling of retreads
should be any different from that of new tyres. The rubber
compounds used for retreading are similar to new tyre compounds
and there is no basis to assume a change in the tyre's structure
during the retreading process. There is also no information
anywhere on claims, spurious or otherwise, to suggest that
retreads handle any differently to new tyres.
b) Because tread pattern design is the main influence on
road noise, there are also good reasons for arguing parity
between new tyres and retreads in terms of noise levels.
Will my insurance be invalidated if I use retreaded tyres?
Absolutely not. In fact, the above-mentioned report by AEA
Technology also points out that the use of retreaded tyres
is not discriminated against by insurance companies on UK
vehicle insurance policies. Bearing in mind the degree of
detail used by insurance companies to calculate risk, it was
concluded that this was good evidence to assume that retreads
provide no safety risk to consumers.
What about all the rubber we see on the side of motorways.
Doesn't all that come from retreads? No. This is just as
likely to come from a new tyre. The fact is that the majority
of tyre failures are the result of improper tyre maintenance.
If tyres are not regularly checked for damage or under/overinflation
there is a risk that they might fail and it doesn't matter
whether they are new tyres or retreads.
How do I find a stockist? No-one stocks retreads any more.
It is certainly true that the nature of how retreaded passenger
tyres are sold has changed beyond recognition over the last
10-15 years. It used to be that more or less every tyre dealer
in the country stocked retreads and now that is simply not
the case. However, to suggest that no-one stocks them at all
is a fallacy. Actually passenger retreading is well represented
in most areas of the country by committed dealers, especially
in the larger urban areas.
However, what is true is that a consumer, who walks into
a tyre retail outlet and who is either looking specifically
to buy retreads or who willing to buy retreads if offered
them, is much more likely these days to be walking into a
dealer who doesn't stock them and that dealer will therefore
attempt to switch-sell the customer to a budget new tyre.
It is also true that some rural areas, particularly in the
south and west of the country, are not as well represented
by stockists as they should be, despite a strong demand from
green consumers.
In order to deal with this the Retread Manufacturers Association
runs the RMA Green Dealer Scheme to support dealers who stock
retreaded tyres. Launched in 2003, the Green Dealer Scheme
now has nearly 200 member outlets.
How environmentally friendly are retreaded tyres exactly?
Retreaded tyres are an exceedingly green product. In fact,
a recent Technical Report by the Environment Agency has provided
a promotional boost to the tyre retreading industry by emphasising
the environmentally friendly credentials of retreaded tyres
for passenger vehicles. The report, entitled "Life Cycle Assessment
of the Management Options for Waste Tyres" considered the
management of used car tyres in the UK, the aim being to compare
the different waste management options for car tyres and to
evaluate the environmental advantages and disadvantages of
each option.
In addition to retreading, systems studied in the report
were export for reuse, reuse in seas defences and drainage
applications, recycling to rubber crumb, combustion in cement
kilns, pyrolysis, gasification and microwave technology
The report studied the effects of the various disposal systems
on eight environmental impact categories, these being:
- abiotic depletion potential (the extraction of non-renewable
reserves, particularly minerals and fossil fuels)
- acidification potential (contribution to acid deposition
onto soil and into water)
- aquatic/terrestrial ecotoxicity ( Contribution to health
effects in flora and fauna)
- global warming potential
- human toxicity (contribution to health effects in humans)
·
- eutrophication (contribution to reduction of oxygen concentration
in water and soil)
- ozone depletion potential
- photochemical oxidant creation potential (contribution
to formation of atmospheric aerosol particles forming a
petrochemical smog)
Retreading achieved the best scores in six out of the eight
categories. Results showed that retreading has the least environmental
impact of all the tyre disposal systems studied in terms of
abiotic depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, eutrophication
and aquatic/terrestrial ecotoxicity as well as being the equal
best option together with cement kilns in the acidification
category.
Source: Retread Manufacturers Association
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