Truemors
Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor
Dr. David Suzuki's small steps in helping the environment has many great options for the public to follow in helping the environment, small steps we can all do painlessly.
Though one of his small steps programs "Retreading your Tires" instead of buying new makes a mountain of sense. Unfortunately, Consumers will have little choice of Tire retread manufacturers when we exchange our old worn out tires for new retreads at local depots. Chinese manufacturered retread tires will be the Norm for Canadians, and with China's continued track
record in Quality Assurance, do you really want to entrust your families life on Chinese made Retreads?
Retreads normally done on big transport truck tires because of the prohibitive cost of new truck tires.
How many of us have travelled along the highway and noticed shredded tires along the side of the road?
That my friend is a retread.
Retreads are strips of rubber with a moulded tread glued in place over a worn tire. A Retread is only as safe as the glue that holds it in place and last half as long as a new tire and their speed rating is undetermined versus a new tire.
Check you insurance policy as well, you may be in for a big surprise if you are involved in an accident from a defective blown tire caused by retread failure. Insurance companies may walk away as you may be on the hook to pay the other parties damages or if you are the victim, you may be out of luck as well if the other party has no means to pay your damages. China normally don't give refunds or pay for personal damages caused by defective workmanship as many cases in the media attest, everything from lead toys to poison pet food.
No Thanks Dave, I'll stick to new tires and look for other ways to do my part for the environment. For some crazy reason, my families safety is more important than a thin strip of glued rubber.
[q url="http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=dad1e8b4-f266-4d18-b953-c57e9e086a8a"]Small StepsDavid Suzuki,
Special to the SunPublished: Monday, March 03, 2008
When you're next in the market for new tires for your automobile, consider the more environmentally -- and less costly -- option of retreaded tires. These recycled tires are not the same as used tires. Retreaded tires reduce the amount of rubber shipped to the landfill, use significantly less oil in production and are less costly for consumers.
For more information: http://www.retread.org/
David Suzuki's Small Steps appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. /q]
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 06:16 on May 12th, 2009
Sorry the rubber along side the road is from tires that have failed, primarily due to underinflation or overloading. As shown in study after study, tire debris on the roadside is made up of both new tire and retread tires in proportion to their usage.
Interesting that the photo happens to be of a failed new tire. You can tell because of the belt wires sticking out. The retread "glue" is placed between the tread and belts, so the belts would not still be attached to the tread if this were of a failed retread.
Retreads are green and safe. There are MANY tire retread companies located all across Canada. There is little danger of foreign retread tires taking over the market anytime soon as long as those fine companies continue to make quality products.
at 06:37 on August 7th, 2009
I just happened upon this site and saw the picture under the caption and new immediately that the peice of rubber in the photo was not a retread. It is off of a 4x4 or similar vehicle. The writer is way off base and poorly informed about retreads. I am in the retreading industry and my personal studies agree with all of the University and U.S Govt. studies I've seen on the subject. The rubber we see on the roads is mostly from big rigs and almost all of it is due to some forn of abuse, impact, overload or worst of all underinflation. As a percentage, retreads only contribute to about 18% of the material out there. Less than 2 % of that is from actual retread manufacturing problems. Anyone can go to the NHSTA site and verify these #s. Sorry Barry.