ADDIS ABABA – The utilization of retreaded tires will have a significant positive impact on the economy and environment, said Ayele Assefa manager and owner of Etef Tyre Retreading Company.
Ayele, whose company is based in Dukem town near the capital Addis Ababa, told The Ethiopian Herald the country can bank a significant amount of foreign currency by retreading or remolding used tires.
Retread, also known as recap, or a remold is a re-manufacturing process for tires that replace the tread on worn tires. Retreading is applied to casings of spent tires that have been inspected and repaired. It preserves about 90 percent of the material in spent tires and the material cost is about 20 percent compared to manufacturing a new one.
“Next to fuel, tire cost is the largest for vehicle owners. Choosing retreads instead of new tires has become economically feasible,” Ayele tells The Ethiopian Herald. Besides reducing tire cost by 60 percent, it is also environmentally friendly.
“But in Ethiopia, both the government and users have been promoting or given attention to using retread tires. For instance, the maximum cost of the remolded tire is less than 4,500 Ethiopian Birr. But the cost of a new tire is more 13, 000. In addition, retread tires are durable.”
Internationally, the usage of retread tires is increasing in the transportation sector. For instance, in Europe and other developed countries, 90 percent of vehicles use retread tires except for the front tires. The United States government has also given orders that all government vehicles use retread tires whenever possible.
Retreading a tire takes seven gallons of oil compared to 22 gallons that are used for making an entirely new tire. And with an estimated 24 million retread tires sold every year, retread tires save on average 360 million gallons of oil per year.
They are the best use of quality resources to conserve rubber and reduce the harvesting of rubber plants, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Hence, a lot of promotion and awareness creation activities have to be undertaken in Ethiopia to gain these benefits, he added. “Currently, our company has a capacity to remold 150 tires per day. In recent times, increasing attention is being given to the environmental effects of the transportation industry. And retread tires are preferable too in this regard.”
The Ethiopian Herald April 11, 2019
BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
