The traditional brand Schwalbe was the first bicycle tyre manufacturer to introduce a system for returning and recycling used bicycle tyres of all brands. Old tyres thus become new Schwalbe tyres – all without waste and with CO2 savings of 80 per cent. Although it sounds relatively simple, it requires plenty of technology and expertise in development. In addition to the technical questions about the new circular economy, there was one logistical hurdle above all: the input material has to be collected and transported across a wide area. So the list of requirements was lengthy: the container had to be extremely stable and retain its shape, so that the sides would not warp under the heavy loads. Additionally, it needed to be weatherproof, since it would be set up outdoors. And it had to have a lid in order to protect the contents from weather conditions. And, finally, the container should collapsible to save space during transport back to its location. The search engine returned a single manufacturer that met these criteria: AUER Packaging. The winner was the collapsible large load carrier GLT 1210/125 with place-on lid – produced in black from reclaimed materials to match the customer and the topic. Following the successful project launch, there are currently 2,000 AUER boxes being used as the fundamental component of Schwalbe’s new logistics system for bicycle tyre recycling.
August 2022
