Issues:
Filipino entrepreneurs take small but sure steps to minimize the waste of discarded rubber tires and choose a most useful outlet: footwear.
/ by Jen Horn / This is the challenge the team of Manila Sole Footwear took on when they decided to create their brand specializing in casual shoes for men and women made with recycled rubber tires and conveyor belts, and recently, also incorporated with textiles made in Baguio and Mindanao. The impact of rubber tires
“A billion tires are sold annually worldwide. On average, a tire would last 2 to 4 years, depending on usage. So eventually, those tires will be thrown away,” shared Rex Somera, co-founder and managing partner of Manila Sole.
These discarded tires would normally wind up being inefficiently piled up in landfills, where they occupy a lot of space due to their size. The tire shape also traps a lot of gases, like methane.
“When we turn them into shoes, we cut them and then the unusable parts are smaller, more space efficient, and don’t trap gases anymore,” adds co-founder Noel Lanto.
In their further research on recycling tires, Rex and Noel found that in other countries, there are other methods of recycling tires. Sometimes they are burned for alternative energy because the average tire contains about 8 liters of fuel. Though burning rubber to retrieve fuel releases a lot of toxic substances into the environment.
Locally, one method of recycling is retreading – layering old tires on old tires, melting them together and cutting new treads – which may not always adhere to the quality safety standard for tires.
Old tires are also often used as a gulubong (gulong para sa bubong or tires for the roof) to keep GI sheet roofs from flying.
“The problem with this is it collects water and serves as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, bacteria and diseases,” shared Rex. Warnings about this have been issued by the DSWD, DOH, and hospitals, especially during dengue season. Choosing the lesser evil
So, recycling rubber tires as shoe soles is among the safer options for reusing them. “If you can’t completely eradicate the problem, at least you can minimize it,” shares Somera.
“The more people buy our shoes (or recycle tires), the more tires we can keep out of the landfills. So if they’re in the market for a pair of shoes, I’d rather have them wanting our product because it can actually help save the environment compared to another shoe made with regular rubber soles,” adds Lanto.
This comes at a cost because finding recycled tires is less cost efficient for the team. It’s harder to source these by bulk compared to just buying new rubber sheets from China. Currently, they’re supplied with whatever their trusty mangbobote can collect for them for their production needs.
In spite of this, the team is dedicated to sticking to their core values of sustainability and Filipino pride, and choosing in favor of the long term benefit to the planet vs. the short term benefit to their wallet.
Manila heart and soul
“We’re not trying to be the leader, the voice of environmentalism here in the Philippines through our shoes. We just want people who buy our shoes to be reminded in their own little way, they can help our country by supporting locally made products, and by advocating eco-friendlier products made with recycled tires,” says Somera.
And they do, in fact, have customers who buy their shoes for their use of recycled materials.
“A lot of people are thinking, ‘Oh, we want to change the world. We have to think of the system or the big solution’, but most of the time you can’t find the huge solution. But the little solutions count, and people neglect the little solutions. It’s just as important. And if ordinary people can do the little solutions, all of them or many of them, then maybe, its a significant enough answer to a very big problem,” shares Lanto.
It may be easier said than done, integrating such changes in production, but there is an increasing demand for products with a purpose, and somehow, it is part of entrepreneurs’ responsibility to think of ways to do business more sustainably, a responsibility that Manila Sole has opted to care enough about.

The Importance of Tire Recycling
Old Tires Are Being Increasingly Utilized
By Rick LeBlanc, About.com Guide
With scrap tires are generated at about the rate of one per person in the US, or about 300 million per year, the importance of tire recycling cannot be understated. Going back 100 years or so into the history of tires, tire recycling was a priority, with the price of an ounce of rubber rivaling the price of an ounce of silver. That recycling motivation was derailed, however, by the introduction of synthetic rubber made from cheap imported oil, as well as by the adoption of steel belted radial tires which were much more challenging to recycle. As a result, worn out tires increasingly found their way to landfills or were often dumped illegally, creating unanticipated hazards. Fortunately, tires are now increasing diverted from landfills. While there was a market for only 17% in 1990, this had risen to 80.4% by 2003, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Urgency of Diversion
Tires sent to landfills or dumped illegally are a significant concern. Old tires provide shelter for rodents, and can trap water, providing a breeding ground for mosquitoes. In landfills, tires consume up to 75 percent air space, In addition, tires may become buoyant and rise to the surface if they trap methane gases. This action can rupture landfill liners that are designed to prevent contaminants from polluting surface and ground water. Approximately 700 to 800 million old tires were estimated to be illegally stockpiled in 1994, with that total reduced to approximately 275 million by 2004. Recycling has been assisted through such programs as the Tire Stewardship BC Association and the work of leading recyclers such as Liberty Tire Recycling.
Of the 233 million tires utilized in 2003, proportion by use included: retreaded – 7.1 percent used as fuel - 44.7 percent recycled or used in civil engineering projects - 19.4 percent converted into ground rubber and recycled into products - 7.8 percent converted into ground rubber and used in rubber-modified asphalt -4.3 percent exported - 3.1 percent (often for use as retreads) recycled into cut/stamped/punched products - 2.0 percent used in agricultural and miscellaneous uses - 1.7 percent

Where the Rubber Leaves the Road: Flat Tire Footwear
Warren McLaren
Living / Sustainable Fashion
June 22, 2007 http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-fashion/where-the-rubber-leaves-the-road-flat-tire-footwear.html Sometime ago we pondered whether Crocs with their simple construction and lightweight might be the Birkys of a new century. Lots of folk were horrified at the notion. A commentor recently let a note saying they had found an alternative, Flat Tire Footwear. While Crocs don’t make any overt claims about being green, these guys do. Their line of shoes, sandals and so on employ crumb rubber salvaged from discarded car and truck tyres. Flat Tire reckon the US generated some 290 million scrap tyres during 2003 and turning them into rubber crumb, such as they use in their footwear, can help reduce this volume by 75 to 90%. As best we can make out the sole itself is not made from the recycled rubber but that it is inserted into the midsole to provide shock absorption. This process is claimed as an industry first, and is said to make the shoes more comfy. We’re not sure how ecologically or socially benign the rest of their production is, but, hey its great that they are doing this much. The longest journey begins with the first step. ::Flat Tire Footwear. See also some of these companies for footwear with recycled rubber:
Tire Recycling
December 30, 2010 Recycling
The mass production of tires and the difficulties to make them disappear once used, is one of the most serious environmental problems in recent years throughout the world. A tire needs large amounts of energy to be produced, half a barrel of crude oil to manufacture a truck tire and cause, if not properly recycled, environmental pollution to be generally part of uncontrolled landfills. There are methods to achieve a consistent tyre recycling but lacking policies to promote the collection and the establishment of industries involved in efforts to recover or remove it cleanly, the hazardous components of the tires of vehicles and machinery.At present there are various methods for the recovery of tires and destruction of hazardous components. The treatment system can even turn the tires into electricity.
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Thermolysis
It is a system that is subject to the waste tire materials to heating in an environment in which there is no oxygen. High temperatures and lack of oxygen has the effect of destroying the chemical bonds. Then appear hydrocarbon chains. Is how to get, again, the original composition of the tire, making it the method that achieves full recovery of the components of the tire. Makes metals, coal and hydrocarbon gases, they can return to the industrial chains either tire production or to other activities.

PYROLYSIS It is still not widespread, due to problems of separation of carbon compounds that are already being overcome. According to company data Chemysis SA.
This procedure (pilot plant) is operating in Taiwan since 2002 with four lines of pyrolysis to recycle 9000 tonnes / year. At present, the procedure has been improved and is capable of treating 28,000 tons of used tires per year, through a single line.
The products obtained do after the pyrolysis process are mainly: GAZ similar to propane which can be used for industrial / – industrial liquid oil can be refined into diesel. / Coke / Steel
Incineration
Process which produces the combustion of organic materials of the tire at high temperatures in furnaces with high-quality refractory materials is an expensive process and also has the disadvantage of the different rates of combustion of the different components and the need for purification waste so that it is not easy to control and also contamination. Generates heat that can be used for energy, and it is an exothermic process. With this method, contaminating products that are produced in combustion are very harmful to human health, including carbon monoxide – Xylene Soot – Oxides of nitrogen, carbon dioxide-zinc oxides Benzene – Phenol, Sulfur Dioxide – Oxides of lead, toluene. Besides the soot contains significant amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, highly carcinogenic. Zinc, in particular, is particularly toxic to aquatic fauna. It also has the danger that many of these compounds are soluble in water, so go to the food chain and then to humans.
CRUSHING cryogenic
This method requires complex facilities which makes not economically profitable and maintenance of machinery and the process is difficult. The low quality of the products obtained and the material and economic difficulty to purify and separate the rubber and metal together and textile materials that make up the tire, causing the system to be unreliable.
Mechanical grinding. It is a purely mechanical process and therefore the resulting products are of high quality clean all kinds of impurities, which facilitates the use of these materials into new processes and applications. Grinding with mechanical systems is almost always the first step in the different methods of recovery and profitability of waste tires.
USES after recycling
The materials obtained after the processing of waste tires which are separated in the industry remains profitable, the resulting material can be used as part of the asphalt layer components used in the construction of roads, with to be able to decrease the extraction of gravel in quarries. The asphalt road that use these are better and safer.
They can also be used in carpets, vehicles or insulating rubber tiles. Have been used to manufacture roofing materials, level crossings, roofing, sealants, vibration isolators.
Other uses are in sports, playing fields, athletics tracks floors for walking and cycling. Utilities are endless and growing every day, like brake cables, rubber compounds, shoe soles, traffic jam bands, made for navigation or modification of bitumen.
The Instrituto of Acustica CSIC has developed a project for the use of these materials in the acoustic ailamiento. Interest in the use of a material such as rubber from waste tires for acoustically absorbent material focuses on requiring, in principle, only mechanical treatment of machining and grinding. These treatments lead to a product particle size and dosage according to the characteristics of highly effective acoustic absorption.
Recycling Tires
Recycling tires present a special difficulty because of their weight and bulk. Disposal also presents other difficulties because tires are made from a variety of materials.
Of the total of recovered tires 60 percent is used as TDF or tire derived fuel. Scrap tires are a good source of fuel because they have a high heating value and produce low amounts of sulphur when burned.
How Can Recycling Tires Benefit Us?

When tires are recycled pollution and energy consumption are reduced. The most beneficial use for old tires is to find new uses for these old though still valuable materials. The next ideallybeneficial use is reusing the old tires by retreading them.
Reducing tires to new material by grinding them is also a desirable option since the material still exists to be used to manufacture whatever new product. Large energy savings can also be realized when tire chips are burned as fuel however this precludes any other recycling since the material is obviously consumed.
Rubber is also used as playground mulch, roadbed material, running tracks, and walkways. There is also some evidence of reduced injuries and reduced vehicle maintenance but there is no adequate documentation for this. The biggest environmental benefit may be the reduced mining for traditional materials like sand and gravel.

Sources http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/tires/faq.htm http://www.tfhrc.gov/hnr20/recycle/waste/st1.htm http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/bk-1992-0515.ch009 http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/ToolsandResources/ScrapTireR