HYDERABAD: Hyderabad-based entrepreneurs Prashant Lingam and Aruna Kappagantula are making treasure out of discarded tyres. They have come up with a range of fabulously comfortable furniture by taking unwanted lorry and car tires and turning them into quirky seating options with creative flair and endless innovation.
They recently came across an incident where they saw tyres being burnt and when they asked the owner, he said he had no other solution to discard scrap tyres. “We are all aware of the huge problem of tyres lying and often getting burnt. The more we can support such a responsible and creative initiative to deal with a problematic waste product – the better for our environment,” says Prashant, the founder of Bamboo House India, a social enterprise that promotes the use of bamboo.
“That’s how the idea of utilising scrap tyres for making furniture and other value added products originated,” says Prashant.
Like many countries, India struggles with the practicalities of disposing of millions of tyres each “Being a social enterprise working on green livelihoods, we decided to collect waste tyres in an efficient, environmentally sound and socially responsible manner,” he says.
There are so many great ideas out there to make recycled furniture and household products, however, Bamboo House has developed an ingenious method to create outdoor furniture and homewares with genuinely attractive designs.
“Shaping up the tyres into furniture components and designing the right product is further more difficult as we have no one to guide us and neither we have any expertise in working with tyres. Our bamboo furniture team is slowly understanding working with tyres,” says Prashant.
All tyres are fully cleaned and processed before being moulded into their new life. “We are targeting garden furniture segment, outside segment, as they are all weather proof, no rusting, no termite, can withstand sun and rain and will last a lifetime.”
Common people can use discarded tyres very effectively without any expert help, all they need is just little bit of patience, time and just browse through the net for ideas.
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Tyres are the most reused waste material, because the rubber is very resilient and can be transformed into useful objects. They can easily make planters, dust bins, storage bins, at least these items are very easy to make and just with the help of a drill machine and few nuts and bolts they are ready at no cost. They can give a wonderful colours to the tyres and can go in kids rooms, small puffs can be made for them, all it requires is some old clothes in the house.
“We are also working on to develop bags, slippers, pots, baskets, trunks, mirrors, planters, belts, buckets and what all possible we can make with scrap tyres. Through this new initiative, we are able to provide livelihoods at the local level. We are right now exploring the option of using tyres as dust bins,” adds Prashant.
Tyre furniture, beside being eco-friendly is also cost effective. Converting them into furniture not only addresses the challenge of their disposal, they are easy on the pocket. “A very simple rocker would cost Rs 500 and the costliest of tyre furniture set will cost `15,000, we are developing an entire range to cater to all segments,” he shares. Products made from recycles tyres are sold at Bamboo House India.