PITTSBURGH—Referred to as the pandemic "Bike Boom," sales of bicycles and bicycle accessories rose by 620 percent across the U.S. between 2020 and 2023, per a study by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
All those used tires have to go somewhere, but rubber recycling industry veterans have said that historically, bike tires are difficult to recycle, and the environmental impact of doing so is negligible. But Trek Bikes knew it could be done, and felt it had to be done.
In 2023, the company set out in search of a partner to help them give bike tires a new life. Enter Pittsburgh-based Liberty Tire Recycling, a scrap tire recycling company with about 60 facilities dotting the U.S. and Canada, and customers including Discount Tire, Bridgestone and Walmart.
"We will manage about 215 million tires this year," said Steve Callahan, vice president, inbound sales for Liberty. "That is in western Canada and throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and we actually do a little bit in Puerto Rico and a little bit in the Virgin Islands."
The two companies began a pilot program in 2023 in Texas, where Trek has more than 50 retail stores. Less than two years later, Trek took the "Retire Your Tires" recycling program nationwide with Liberty's help, making it the first program of its kind in the U.S.
"Their vision (and) sustainability goals truly impressed us, and they were enthusiastic about the potential of recycling bike tires," Trek officials said of Liberty. "This led to the launch of a pilot program, during which we built a strong and effective partnership. Together, we developed a solution tailored to our retail stores, which we've now successfully expanded across all Trek-owned stores in the United States."
But although the pilot program saw enough success to greenlight a nationwide effort, a peek behind the curtain reveals that the road was rocky at the start.