The benefits of retreading

March 10, 2014
Using retreaded tires is a boon to the environment and a fleet’s bottom line

Based on what I’ve seen over the past decade, the whole green movement is just getting started.  One of the popular new buzzwords is sustainable, which basically means the resource in question is not exploited to the point where it can no longer reproduce and survive.  Natural rubber could definitely be considered on the list of sustainable products because there is a finite lifespan to each tree, and it takes several years for a new planting to yield any product. Therefore, successful farmers have to find the balance between producing trees and developing trees to ensure they can remain viable in the future.

Fleets that use retreaded tires are definitely contributing to the sustainability of natural rubber and other raw materials.  In fact, the typical retread saves about 40 lbs. of materials like rubber, steel and carbon black.  Truck tire retreading also reduces carbon emissions by 396,000 tons each year because it takes a lot less energy to produce a retread versus a new tire.  And while about 89% of all tires are currently recycled, that number is sure to drop if the 15 million tires that are retreaded annually are added to the waste stream.

Since oil is another raw material in the construction of a new truck tire or retread, it’s important to know the savings that retreads provide.  An original tread radial truck tire takes about 22 gals. of oil to manufacture, while a retread only takes 7 gals.  If you do the math, the 225-million-gal. savings associated with 15 million retreads results in 5,357,142 barrels of crude oil, which translates to over half a billion dollars saved at $100 per barrel.  So, the sustainability benefits of stretching a barrel of crude oil farther by retreading truck tires also has a serious economic impact.

All of these facts are pulled from a video recently released by the Tire Retread and Repair Information Bureau (TRIB) titled “The Environmental Benefits of Retreading.”  TRIB is a nonprofit industry association that has been the voice of retreading for more than 40 years.  Its website, www.retread.org, is one of the most popular resources for people looking for information on retreaded tires.  Despite the incredible safety record and immeasurable environmental benefits, there is still a stigma attached to retreads.  Retreading and repairing tires creates numerous advantages for the motoring public—and TRIB is dedicated to providing those facts.

While it’s difficult to imagine that some fleets do not utilize retreaded truck tires, there are still a few holdouts from the old days.  My advice to those owners is to visit your local retread plant to see first-hand the level of technology that goes into today’s retreads.  They save millions of dollars in operating expenses when compared to new tires and deliver the same level of performance for thousands of fleets in North America.  The most important thing to remember is that most of the tire failures on the road are caused by the lack of inflation pressure.  When the pressure is not enough for the load, the tire is coming apart regardless of whether it is new or retreaded.

It’s rare for me to agree with the government, but I totally support the Environmental Protection Agency when it says that a retreaded truck tire contains 75% post-consumer material.  Retreading is the best form of recycling because the majority of the raw materials and energy costs go into the manufacturing of the casing.  These products are designed and engineered to have multiple lives as retreaded tires, which is the essence of recycling.

Kevin Rohlwing can be reached at [email protected]

About the Author

Kevin Rohlwing

Kevin Rohlwing is the SVP of training for the Tire Industry Association. He has more than 40 years of experience in the tire industry and has created programs to help train more than 180,000 technicians.

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