ELI students, Virginia Such and Sophia Long, are featured in The Current for launching TREAD, a bicycle tire recycling program at the UCSB Associated Students Bike Shop.
TREAD, or Tire Recovery Education and Diversion, is a new recycling program started through the Environmental Leadership Incubator. The project's primary goal is to establish a sustainable, long-term system to divert bike tires from landfills while raising awareness of responsible bike tire care on UCSB’s campus. Over 50% of the UCSB student body commutes by bike, leading to a high volume of worn-out tires. TREAD recognized a gap in the sustainable diversion of bike tires and aims to establish an ongoing recycling program with the UCSB Associated Students Bike Shop and Liberty Tire Recycling. In addition, the initiative is designed to be scalable, with the potential to expand to other universities across the United States that generate similar bike tire waste streams. Currently, TREAD is in conversation with dozens of colleges about bringing a similar recycling initiative to their campuses.
Through TREAD, the Associated Students Bike Shop packages old bike tires in wheel and bike boxes, which are picked up by Liberty Tire Recycling and sent to the nearest tire-recycling facility for shredding. Liberty Tire Recycling has facilities across the United States and recycles tires from local bike shops and big corporations for a small fee. Before TREAD, the on-campus bike shop was throwing out bike tires and tubes, which ended up in landfills, leaching harmful toxins and microplastics into our air and water. At Liberty Tire Recycling facilities, the bike tires are recycled into reusable crumb rubber for athletic tracks and playgrounds and tire-derived fuel, promoting a circular economy.
So far, TREAD has completed one round of bike tire pickups from the Associated Students Bike Shop, diverting over 80 tires from landfills, and continues to package up more tires for recycling. Bike Shop manager Adam Jahnke wants to continue the program for years to come to ensure UCSB is reducing bike tire waste and promoting sustainability on campus. The bicycle has long symbolized UCSB, but now it also reflects UCSB's ongoing commitment to sustainability.
Check out this recently published article in The Current to learn more about this project.