FEATURE
“On top of that, the steel itself is so hard that it actually chips the cutting teeth.” This information led the Velorim team to develop a specialised machine that will rip bicycle tyres apart, including the metal bead, so the steel can then be recycled. After that stage, the process is quite straightforward with the rubber going through two shredding stages. A first stage shred to 15mm can be used in equestrian surfaces. A second stage shred, to a 5mm rubber crumb, will remove fibres that can be used in construction and insulation, and rubber that could be used for flooring or other commercial products. De-vulcanisation is still being researched by Velorim, but this would see the rubber converted into a new raw material that can be used to create new products.
LEGISLATION CHANGES Velorim collects from around 700 locations across the UK as part of the National Bicycle Tyre Recycling Scheme. This includes approximately 500 public drop off points at local bike shops, with the rest made up of mobile mechanics, warehouses and charities.
“It sounds a lot but it is only around 1% of the market,” said
Lawrence. “We are aiming at doing 20% within a couple of years.”
A change in legislation that could accelerate that growth is an outright ban on bicycle tyre disposal in landfill - something that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been consulting on.
“In Scotland it is now against the law to put bike tyres or inner tubes into household waste,” said Lawrence. “About half the councils in the [rest of the] UK have told waste people that they can refuse to take household waste if they see tyres or even tubes in it.” To address this, Velorim will be engaging with local authorities to encourage residents to visit a local centre to dispose of tyres and tubes.
COLLABORATION Velorim’s organic expansion has relied on buy-in and support from retailers, workshops and customers who are willing to go the extra mile to recycle. In an effort to make it cost neutral for stores, Velorim suggests a charge for anyone looking to recycle their tyres and tubes: “A pound a tyre, 50p an inner tube should go a long way to covering their costs,” said Lawrence
“There are some [businesses] where the majority of the stuff they throw is their own, as they don’t do much in the way of customer repairs, so they don’t get many people coming through. So there’s always going to be a few who say ‘I’m sorry, this is costing us too much, we can’t do this anymore’. But the majority [of retailers] are very, very positive.”
8 | September 2023
One sector that faces cost challenges of recycling is bike refurbishment charities. “Very often the bike will come in with bald tyres and punctures, so they have to fit new tyres and tubes,” said Taylor. “Then they’ve got the problem of disposing of the waste. “That needs to be a mindset change on the behalf of the
donor to say ‘look, we understand this is going to cost the charity,’ so a £5 donation for each of the bikes should cover the cost of the waste. “We are working to try and find ways to mitigate that.” Another side of the collaboration comes on the behalf of the suppliers and manufacturers. With electrical goods, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations (WEEE) means the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer has to finance the collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of household WEEE collected in the UK.
In the car industry it is done as a tax on the consumer with a nominal fee added to the bill of a new tyre - usually around £5-£10 per tyre. Looking ahead, Velorim is developing a scheme where a tyre brand would receive a voucher to go with the sale of any new product.
“When the tyre is sold, the voucher goes with it and that’s redeemable at any Velorim centre to cover the cost of recycling,” said Taylor. “So to the consumer it’s free because the manufacturer has paid for it in advance.”
THE FUTURE
It’s clear throughout the conversation with Lawrence and Taylor that Velorim could play a key role in UK cycling’s ability to call itself truly sustainable. With bikes and other forms of micromobility often seen as the only way forward for green methods of transport, the trade has to do its own part by being as environmentally-friendly as it can. To achieve this, projects like Velorim’s National Bicycle Tyre Recycling Scheme need to succeed, and to succeed, they need industry backing. “If you haven’t got the facilities to recycle anywhere within your local area, they [local authorities] can’t ask you to recycle,” said Lawrence. Taylor added: “We still regularly get comments of ‘well, our nearest [Velorim] centre is 75 miles from where I live.’ “So we really need to aim for the 2,000 number for people to be able to recycle.”
So what do businesses need to do to become a Velorim centre? “It’s the easiest thing in the world,” said Lawrence. “Drop me an email saying you want to become a Velorim centre, I send you the paperwork, you sign it and send it back, two days later you’re a Velorim centre.”
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