By Sreepadaraj Karanam

THERE are many essential necessities that get people through each day: running water, electricity, cups of coffee – and tyres.

Whether you drive your own car each day or board a bus to take you across town, tyres are the enabler of mobility. Every year, globally, an estimated one billion tyres reach the end of their service life. About 60 per cent of these rubber tubes are collected for material or energy recovery, but the rest either end up in landfills or have an undetermined end use. As a result, we are losing valuable materials that have many reuse and recycling purposes.