STEP #8
Buy Retreads
Retreads are recycled tires. By retreading tires that have worn down, we slash the amount of oil needed to manufacture our tires by more than half. It takes 22 gallons of oil to make one medium-sized truck tire, and only 7 or 8 gallons for a retread. Let’s see four tires on the average car and a whole lot more on the average tractor-trailer—that’s a lot of tires! And as tires can be retreaded repeatedly, the oil—and cost—savings multiply.
Truckers save more than $3 billion annually by using retreads, and many other commercial transportation companies like the U.S. Postal Service, school bus operators, taxis and commercial and military airlines opt for retreads.
And as each tire must pass a rigorous inspection before being retreaded, their safety is assured. “Only the very best proven worn passenger and truck tires get past this inspection,” according to the TRIB (Tire Retread and Repair Information Bureau) website, www.retread.org.
Retreading tires also keeps rubber from filling landfills and reduces the amount of new rubber needed to make tires. When a tire has worn out its retread-ability, it is often recycled into other materials, which are especially useful as barriers in natural disaster areas, as tires can withstand greater amounts of pressure than can traditional materials.
Although retreaded tires have been used commercially for many years, they are just recently becoming more readily available for public use. By asking for retread tires, you can help make them more popular and readily available. You can find a worldwide listing of retread providers and detailed information about retreads at www.retread.org/guide.
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