United Kingdom is planning to launch a national bicycle tire recycling program in 2020. BikeBiz magazine reports that in 2018, a survey showed that over 44,000 tons of end-of-life bicycle tires and inner tubes end up at landfills in the UK every year. This figure is set to rise as participation continues to increase, the magazine says.

According to BikeBiz, here is some annual statistics related to end-of-life bicycle tires and tubes in the UK:

  • Some 30,500,000 bicycle tires are disposed of
  • Some 152,500,000 inner tubes reach end-of-life stage and are disposed of
  • Over 99% of these end up in landfill
  • These materials amount to some 44,000 tons.

In the aftermath of the survey, work began on developing a UK collection and recycling scheme for end-of-life bicycle tires and inner tubes which is planned to be implemented all over the country. BikeBiz magazine says that all of the rubber collected in this program will be recycled into marketable materials or re-used in other ways, with zero going to landfill and none exported.

The program will attract bike stores, workshops, hire schemes and cycle refurbishment centers to participation and urge them all to become local collection points. The cost of running the collection and recycling will be funded by consumers by means of charging a recycling levy on every end-of-life tire received.

According to the original article, the National Bicycle Tire Recycling Scheme is to be run by Velorim, whose chief executive Dave Hawthorn said: “It is important that we, the UK cycling industry, get our house in order before the government makes the disposal of bicycle tires illegal. Once we have, we can then rightly re-claim the position of being the most environmentally responsible of sports.”

To learn more about the topic, please visit the BikeBiz’ website.