A growing awareness of lessening the environmental footprint of the transportation industry has lead to many recent technological advances, including the new line of 2007 engines.

Even before the environment and recycling became chic causes, the trucking industry was on the leading edge of the movement.

“The first large scale recycling effort ever, that’s retreading. Everyone thinks recycling is cool now, but the trucking industry has been doing it for years,” said Guy Walenga, with Bridgestone/Firestone. “You’re recycling the casing rather than making it a throwaway.”

As well as keeping tires out of the landfill, a retreaded tire also provides fleets and owner/operators an opportunity to preserve oil reserves, one retread at a time.

“A standard new tire takes 22 gallons of oil to make and a retread tire takes seven gallons. You’re delaying putting that casing into the landfill and using less oil,” explained Chris Hoffman with Bandag.

In some cases making a positive environmental decision does not always pay dividends on the bottom line, but even just one retread is doubling a tire’s usage.

“The casing is about a third of the value of the product and if we throw it away we’re wasting money and hurting the environment,” added Ralph Beaveridge, with Michelin. “By retreading the casing you’re taking a large part of the tire and reusing it in a very efficient manner.”