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Car tyres are a perfect source of shoe sole material. It's
common to buy rubber crumb from a tyre recycling plant and add
up to 40% to the mix of newly moulded rubber soles.
A greener method of recycling is to cut a worn out tyre into
strips, which can be cut to shape and glued under a shoe. This
gives you more style for less energy & material.
The difficulty is to know which solution to use for the problem
of wire inside the tyre tread. I've never had the time to work-out
an answer, but have asked a few people for ideas and will put
their replies on a message
board.
- Using European nylon cross-ply tyres is one solution, but
they would either be made for motorbikes, and so too rounded,
or made for very rare models of sports car - some of the vintage
Jaguar range - and too old as well as being too thinly scattered.
Racing car tyres a reliable source, and probably the one used
by Ecolution in Romania who supplied the soles below as well
as the canvas upper (by using hemp instead of cotton, they find
it easy to grow fibre for canvas organically).
- Using Indian or Far Eastern cross-ply tyres is another solution,
but they would be heavy to post and there is usually a 15% tariff.
Cutting the cross-ply tyres on site and importing the strips
is more likely to work.
- Using Kevlar re-enforced radial tyres is another solution,
depending on how rare they are and whether the Kevlar can be
cut. The advantage is that once cut, it might be flexible enough
to do as a shoe sole. However the Tyre trade association and
Wrap, the government tyre recycling quango both suggest that
nearly all tyres have steel in them, so it may be hard to find
the exceptions. Do hearses have steel in the tyres? Maybe.
- Using Steel re-enforced tyres is a good starting point, as
there are mountains of them throughout Europe. I assume that
the steel cannot easily be removed, even when warmed, from the
rubber, and that if left inside, it would make the sole too stiff
to walk on and too hard to cut. The solution would be to cut
a sliver of rubber from the outside of a worn tyre leaving the
side walls and wire intact. This is very similar to what a tyre
re-tread factory does, except that they tend to gauge-off the
outer layer as crumb rather than cutting it off as sheet. I don't
know if the outer layer is thick enough (say a quarter of an
inch) to cut and use and I don't know if anyone is set-up to
do it.
- Hi again!
> I've been asking around to try to find tyres that aren't
steel re-
> enforced, and been told that racing tyres or perhaps hearses
are the
> only likely ones nowadays.
From what I understand, ATV tyres and many trailer tyres don't
contain steel. Supposedly, cut up basketballs also provide good
tread. Lastly, I've read that you can cut steel belted tyres
with a carbide hacksaw blade, eased by lubricating the cutting
with drops of water. Of course, you'd still have the steel wire
ends to deal with. In the US, with our mountains of old tires
everywhere, the pre-steel kind can still be found. This company
seems to know where to look. http://ozarkmountainponyswings.com
Maybe they could give you some tyre hunting ideas for the UK
And now I'll shut up. ;) Good luck on your quest.Cheers!Heidi
- I asked how someone who sells tyre-sole boots how it's done.
"There's a scrap yard next to the factory", he said.
"they just take old tyres, cut off the outer layer or rubber
and use that".
If anyone knows the best solution and how to develop it please let me know.
Link back to plimsoll.htm page
John Robertson
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