Cycling has always been associated with living an eco-conscious lifestyle. Commuting by bike, for example, can reduce your carbon footprint and lead to less congestion on the roads. Some manufacturers of bikes and biking gear opt to create their products from recycled materials and we often see cyclists recycling their old bikes by selling them on when they decide to upgrade.
Whilst this is all true, cycling has a literal black mark against its name. In the UK over 44,000 tonnes of tyres and inner tubes go to landfills each and every year, creating unnecessary waste and an increase in greenhouse gasses.
An extensive survey carried out in 2018 found that most cycling stores have looked into recycling options but found that there were few available. 100% of respondents said they’d use a tyre recycling service if one was made available. Many stores and customers across the UK are stuck with scrap tyres and tubes without a dedicated place to dispose of them that is environmentally conscious and guilt-free.
Leisure Lakes Bikes and the cycling industry at large is no longer being complacent to this issue. Retailers, service engineers, hire schemes and third sector groups are all working together to bring an end to the scrapping of tyres and inner tubes, once and for all.
Leisure Lakes Bikes, working in partnership with Velorim, plans to move towards a more sustainable future. Velorim manages the collection and recycling of inner tubes and tyres on a national basis. By simply depositing your used tyres and tubes in a Velorim container at your local Leisure Lakes Bikes store, you can be assured that they will be disposed of in a way that is safe for the environment. Look for the Velorim containers across our 10 stores and deposit your used tyres and tubes free of charge.
The recycling process used by Velorim is backed by two years of academic and technical research. Torn up trail tyres or worn-out inner tubes are shredded and granulated into their constituent parts: rubber, steel and fibre. Each of these materials has its own recovery destinations and purposes, going on to become safety flooring, construction materials or insulation. These methods ensure that together we can send zero waste to landfills and make sure zero waste is exported.
As well as this progressive move to recycling tubes and tyres, Leisure Lakes Bikes is switching to paper bags in its retail stores to further reduce plastic waste and our impact on the environment.
Cycling is known as the greenest, most ecologically friendly mode of transport, let’s work together to a more sustainable future!
