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A remolded or retreaded tire, also known as a retread or recap is a new motor vehicle tire that is made from the carcass or casing of a used tire. Buying remolded or retreaded tires reduces petroleum consumption and lowers the number of waste tires in storage or landfills, which reduces the risk of toxic tire fires, the spread of pests like mosquitoes, and the amount of heavy metals leaching into soil and groundwater.

Find it! Remolded or retreaded tires

Remolded or retreaded tires save oil and usually cost much less than "new" tires while providing the same level of performance. Retreaded or remolded tires can be driven at the same speeds as new tires and last as long as new tires. Retreaded tires are even used on Air Force One and could save you 30 to 50 compared to new tires.

Before you buy

Buyers of retreaded or remolded tires need to keep in mind the same issues that any tire buyer would. Here are the basics:

• Always buy the correct tire for your vehicle and wheels. You can find the information you need in the owner's manual for your vehicle, and the specifications are also usually in the driver's door frame of a car or truck. If the original tires are still on the vehicle, you can find the specifications on them as well. These specifications include the tire width, aspect ratio (sidewall height as a percentage of width), wheel diameter, load rating, and speed rating.
• Buy the longest-lasting tire you can afford to conserve oil and other resources and to keep from adding to the supply of waste tires. Ask your salesperson what the tread wear rating is for the tires you are considering purchasing. Higher numerical ratings are better—a rating above 350 indicates a durable tire, but some carry ratings as high as 700 or more.
• Choose low-rolling-resistance tires if possible, since they generate less friction with the road and will improve your vehicle's fuel economy. Look for tires with a low rolling resistance coefficient (RRC) average. A tire with a score of 0.0105 or lower is a relatively efficient tire. If every car and light truck in America had low rolling resistance tires installed, we'd cut our annual oil imports by as much as 4 percent.[1]

Buying remolded or retreaded tires help you go green because...

• Much less petroleum is used to produce a retreaded tire than a new tire.
• Purchasing retreaded tires keeps waste tires out of landfills and tire dumps. This reduces the risk of highly toxic tire fires, and also reduces the risk of heavy metals leaching into soil and groundwater.
• Remolded and retreaded tires require less energy to produce than new tires.

Over 230 million replacement automobile and light truck tires are purchased in the United States each year, and each passenger automobile tire contains an average of 2.5 gallons of petroleum.[2] Approximately 290 million scrap tires were generated in 2003.[3]

Since a remolded or retreaded tire only requires about one-third the oil to manufacture as a new tire, choosing a set of four retread tires for your passenger car can conserve almost seven gallons of oil. We currently consume about 1.6 million gallons of petroleum every day to manufacture tires for US consumption, but we could save nearly a million gallons of that if everyone chose retreaded or remolded tires whenever possible. Up to 15 gallons of oil is saved for each medium truck tire that is retreaded. Over 400 million gallons of oil are saved each year in North America by using retread tires.[4]

Retreaded and remolded tires are widely used throughout the US. President Clinton signed an executive order in 1993 requiring federal agencies to use retreaded tires. Retreaded tires are in use on everything from school buses to passenger cars. All commercial airlines use retreaded tires, and approximately 80 percent of the tires used in commercial airline service are retreaded tires.

An additional concern related to waste tires is their storage. There are at least 275 million used tires being stored as waste in the United States, which pose substantial environmental challenges due to the risk of fire and possible leaching of chemicals into the soil.[3] Although major tire fires occur infrequently, the environmental impact can be massive. For example, a 7 million tire fire in Rhinehart, VA in 1983 burned for nine months, created a plume of smoke 3,000 feet high and nearly 50 miles long, deposited emissions in three states, and contaminated nearby water sources with lead and arsenic.[5] Choosing retreaded or remolded replacement tires is like keeping your old tires out of a landfill. For each retreaded tire you purchase, you keep one tire out of a landfill.

Controversies

Many believe that retreaded or remolded tires are not as safe as new tires. However, retreaded and remolded tires are considered to be as safe as new tires and should last as long as a similar new tire with the same maintenance. Tire failure is generally due to overload, underinflation or other abuse, not because the tire has been retreaded.

Related health issues

Tire fires from waste tires that have not or cannot be retreaded can release significant amounts of air pollution, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, styrene, phenols, and butadiene. Oil and heavy metals may exude into the local soil and surface water during a tire fire, which can trigger Superfund cleanup status.

Pests such as rodents and mosquitos may live and breed in scrap tire piles. Several varieties of mosquitoes can carry deadly diseases, including West Nile Virus, encephalitis, and dengue fever.

External links

• Green California - Vehicles/Transportation: Retreaded Tires
• Green Car Congress
• Green Seal - Choose Green Report: Low Rolling Resistance Tires
• Retread Tire Buyers Guide
• Rubber Manufacturers Association
• US Centers for Disease Control - Mosquito-Borne Diseases
• US Department of Transportation - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Tire Safety
• US Environmental Protection Agency - Management of Scrap Tires