Since having a few punctures lately I’ve wondered what happens to old inner tubes. Everywhere we turn now we are looking to save the planet, which is great! Cycling is one of those ways. But it’s become too common to just replace inner tubes rather than patching up.

When I was a kid my bike was made from scraps of friends bikes or raiding the local tip. Also my inner tube must have got to a point where it was basically made up from repair patches! I was effectively recycling from a young age because money was tight back then.

Unfortunately when I bought my Boardman a few months ago I was given this advice… ‘Not much point buying a puncture repair kit mate, inner tubes are cheaper than the repair kits now, you can just replace the tube and throw away the old one’

Mmm… well I’ve been thinking, if this is the case are inner tubes recycled ♻️? Are they biodegradable?

Well unfortunately it turns out a lot of our inner tubes actually end up in land fill! Not great 😣

What are the options?

Well after a little bit of research I’ve come up with a couple of options..

Tubeless

Let’s get rid of the inner tubes from your bike. This is the most common option and new bikes are usually coming with tubeless ready tires and set up. You can get any bike converted to tubeless, either by doing it yourself or paying somewhere like Halfords £45 and they’ll do it for you.

Tubeless has many advantages, it saves you money as you won’t be buying inner tubes or puncture repair kits. It makes our bikes lighter therefore greater efficiency when we’re out.

Recycling

Well there are ways to recycle your old inner tubes and you wouldn’t believe what can be done with them…

Cycle of Good

I’ve been reading up on this charity that recycles old inner tubes, and quite honestly it seems amazing!

So they are a charity, that basically send out old inner tubes to Malawi where a team of people that are able to sew will create some fantastic products such as bags, straps, phone cases, etc.

You can recycle your old inner tubes for the price of a stamp and send in your inner tubes or there are various drop off points located throughout the UK 🇬🇧👍

I love this!

Click here to see your inner tube drop off points.

Conclusion

To cycle instead of using the car is still one of the most effective ways an individual can reduce their carbon footprint.

However there are still ways the cycling community/industry can reduce the impact humanity is having on the planet.

Let’s lose inner tubes, bikes should be tubeless as standard or trading in old inner tubes should be incentivised. Even the plastic packaging that litters the bike shop shelves could be gotten rid of with a few changes.

Let’s see what the future holds ♻️