Environmentally responsible tires

A greener tire from a special kind of tire manufacturer

Note from Michael: Tires are a vital component of any vehicle, we just have to have them. After reading a comment and email from Rich Gostenik of the Green Diamond Tire Company relating to my article Tires And The Environment; I invited him to write a piece about his company and products as I thought these tires were rather unique in an industry that contributes significantly to our environmental woes.

While it is certainly in vogue to proclaim a company’s product as being ‘green’, Green Diamond Tire is a company that has produced a more environmentally ‘green’ tire for nearly a decade and is only now beginning to… [sic] gain traction :-)

Truly, an environmentally responsible tire.

While major tire manufacturers have recently been jumping on the ‘green’ bandwagon, it is still a fact that the construction of the tire casing, bead bundles and belt assemblies require significant fossil fuel consumption and energy waste. While these same major firms presumably strive to reduce their carbon footprint for the benefit of our planet, there is simply no avoiding the environmental and economic impact of having to produce a quality tire from scratch.

What a shame and economic waste it is when end consumers of tires must discard a very serviceable tire casing when only the tread is worn away. Why not reconstruct and remold these casings? The Green Diamond Tire company is doing just that… here in the USA!

The Green Diamond Icelander Tire

A Green Diamond Tire (GDT) is a remolded passenger or light truck-class tire that employs a patented Icelandic traction tire technology that embeds 1,000s of silicon carbide (think: industrial diamond) granules throughout the tread depth. It can be accurately stated that each GDT manufactured represents one less tire casing clogging a landfill and… once remolded into a GDT, it actually out-performs the original tire from which it is built. A GDT may be driven year-round for a mileage expectancy of approximately 45,000 miles. More environmental benefits of the GDT:

• Each typical passenger-class GDT requires 3 – 5 gallons LESS of petroleum product to produce… a light truck-class GDT SAVES 6 – 9 gallons per tire. These savings are derived from not having to scratch-build casings… the structural foundation of every tire. The range variance is attributable to actual tire size.

• All manufacturing operation co-product and by-product is recycled into other post-consumer products such as highway bedding substrate, decking, fence, playground and athletic track material.

• A GDT is an all-climate, year-round tire. Therefore, there is an additional economic and environmental savings of not needing a set of ‘summer’ tires and wheels and the associated carbon footprint negative overhead.

A GDT is NOT a retreaded or recapped tire.

To be fair, retreaded tires unduly get a bad rap and, truth be known, most of the tread material often found alongside the highways today are not remnants of a retreaded tire… rather these ‘road gators’, as truckers refer to them, are most often the product of end-consumer carelessness in maintaining those tires. Whether from improper inflation or overloading, a tire can and will self-destruct when so abused. However, this is a topic for another time and one that deserves careful attention and detail. I stated that a GDT is not a retread or recap and that requires some explaining.

• A retreaded or recapped tire uses proven technology to apply an already-cured and embossed ribbon of tire tread material to a prepared casing with an adhesive and is then cured in an autoclave type chamber to exacting standards… not a bad way to save a tire from a landfill while deriving the additional usage benefits of recycling a perfectly usable tire casing.

• The GDT differs significantly in that the process of remolding is more akin to actual new tire manufacturing. Once a tire casing has been vigorously inspected and accepted for remolding into a GDT, it is literally handled with sterile gloves throughout the preparation phases of buffing, tread spooling, sidewall veneering, and finally molding and curing using segmented molds and presses that rival the technological sophistication of new tire manufacturers.

• It is during the tread material spooling phase that the GDT gains its’ diamond namesake. As the tread material builds up the computer-controlled and specified depth, 1,000s of the silicon carbide granules are added to the 45,000 mile tread compound. It is these granules that give the GDT exceptional ice, snow, and wet pavement traction. In fact this feature of the tire carries numerous international patents and is what makes the GDT coveted as a year-round, all climate tire.

David vs. Goliath… sort of :-)

Today, Green Diamond Tire (obviously, the ‘David’) is a small, niche, environmentally-aware company. Current annual output is approximately 100,000 GDTs and production is 100% American-made. By contrast, any of the ‘Goliath’ tire manufacturers can literally produce that quantity in a week… and they do… and their newest mega-plants are NOT in the US of A.

When the Icelandic inventors ‘shopped’ the GDT technology to several of the US ‘Goliaths’, they were unceremoniously met with the ‘not invented here syndrome’ and an arrogance that the environment did not matter as much as new tire profit and earnings.

From that initial encounter with the US tire Goliaths, Green Diamond Tire – North America vowed to remain a special company… one that can ‘talk the talk’ because we proudly ‘walk the environmental walk’ because it is crucial for the planet… not because it is suddenly in vogue and marketable.

Learn more about Green Diamond Tires, or feel free to ask Rich a question below - I'm sure he'd be pleased to answer any queries you have as he's quite passionate about his company and tires :)

Source: GreenLiving Tips

Eco-Friendliness

20 Simple ideas to help save the environment and save you money in the long run:

1. Turn off the lights when not using them. Add night lights in important areas of your home for vision like the bathroom, kitchen and hallways if you need them. It's also adds a bit of a romantic atmosphere when the lights are off, my spice up your love life while saving money and the environment.

2. Don't wash clothes unless you have a full load. Use cold water for washing your clothes that will save you money on your gas or electric bill and help the environment.

3. Always turn on the dishwasher when you have a full load - don't wash a small load in the dishwasher. If you handwash your dishes, a larger load is better to wash at once to save on the water bill. Some recommend using cold water to wash dishes - but I disagree. Hot water is much better at killing germ and ridding the dishes of grease.

4. Wash dishes and clothes in the cool hours of the morning or evening. It will keep your house from heating up during the hot part of the day and saving you money on your cooling bills. This reduces the load on your air conditioner in the summer, and actually helps heat the house in the winter.

5. If you drink water please don't use bottled water. You are better off investing in a good travel mug to refill your cup. Bottled water is no healthier than tap water according the latest studies from many environmental groups. If you are thirst, stop by that convince store and purchase ice and fill your travel mug. [Some places do not charge for the ice and/or water]. Please read the 5 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water at Lighter Footsteps for more information.

6. Turn off the water when brushing your teeth. It wastes up to 2 gallons of water when standing their with the tap running and simply unnecessary to have the water running.

7. Turn off any appliances that are not in use. I know too many people that will not turn off a TV and go outside to do 'other things' - this simply wastes electricity and money while hurting the environment.

8. Make sure the doors and windows are closed when running the air conditioner or heater. Bump your thermostat up 2 or 3 degrees in the summer and down 2 or 3 degrees in the winter - you'll be surprised that it will not make a lot of difference to the room temperature but will save you money on your bill.

9. Turn your thermostat down a bit on your hot water heater. You don't need it scalding hot while needing to turn on the cold water to regulate it. Simply turn down the thermostat.

10. Curb your spending habits! The more you buy the more waste is produced. Try to live as humbly and simply as possible.

11. Energy efficient light bulbs. Use them.

12. Take shorter showers or use less water in your bath. Install an energy efficient [water saving] shower heads.

13. Eat left overs instead of throwing them away. If you do not like leftovers then do not cook as much at one time.

14. Reuse and Recycle please. That jar of jelly can be reused to store other things and your old butter bowl makes a great container for those leftovers. It doesn't take that long to separate your garbage and recyclables.

15. Find any drafts in your home and fix them. Break out that caulk gun and weather stripping! It may seem like an out of pocket expense to 'plug up the holes' but you are already spending extra money every month in heating/cooling bills.

16. In the summer, keep drapes and curtains closed on the sunny side of the house. In the winter, open those drapes and curtains on sunny days to take advantage of the sun's heating power. Close all drapes, blinds or shades at night in winter to make use of their insulating properties

17. Electric cooktops are energy drains - gas is cheaper if you are able to switch over. Use the appropriate burner for your pan size. Also, flat bottom pots make better contact and conduct heat from the elements more efficiently than pots with warped or rounded bottoms.

18. Use an exhaust fan to pull excess heat and humidity out of the kitchen and bathroom in the summer. Be aware, however, that exhaust fans can rapidly pull the heat from your house in the winter.

19. Use ceiling fans. They can save energy in both the summer and winter. In the summer, fan blades should revolve in a counterclockwise direction. Since moving air feels cooler, using ceiling fans in the summer allows you to raise the thermostat temperature, reducing the workload of your air conditioner. Air conditioners use considerably more energy than ceiling fans. In winter months, set your ceiling fan at its slowest speed and reverse it in order to gently push warm air down from the ceiling without generating a breeze.

20. Take advantage of the 'free' air conditioning during the spring and early autumn. Turn off the air conditioner or heater and open the windows. It's healthy to air out the house and will save money, energy and the environment.