The company inaugurates two Tyre Playgrounds near Chennai
Apollo Tyres inaugurated two Tyre Playgrounds near Chennai, in the southern part of India. These playgrounds have been created using worn-out or end-of-life tyres (ELT) for the kids of Senakuppam and Vallakottai villages, just outside Chennai. Mr. Satish Sharma, President, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Apollo Tyres Ltd inaugurated the playgrounds, located inside the community schools, along with the head of the local panchayats and the school headmasters.
Commenting on the Tyre Playgrounds, Mr. Satish Sharma, said, “As per a research commissioned by us, very soon India will have 100 million+ end-of-life tyres every year, without proper mechanisms in place to recycle or dispose off these tyres. As a responsible company, we have been working towards tackling this issue of discarded tyres. From expanding our retreading footprint, to the launch of Go The Distance pitch in Old Trafford, UK and now these play structures, all showcase ways we have been working towards the reuse or recycling of discarded tyres.”
Each of these playgrounds have been created using nearly 200 radial tyres, under company’s umbrella environment initiative, Habitat Apollo. Depending on the success of this pilot project of creating play structures using worn-out tyres, the company will look at replicating it at multiple locations across the country, with the villages around Apollo Tyres’ manufacturing facilities, as the first targets.
The two village schools in Senakuppam and Vallakottai were identified for the Tyre Playgrounds, as they lacked play structures. Structures like monkey-climb, swing and ropeway have been created using the worn-out tyres. “Apart from making use of end-of-life tyres, these Go The Distance playgrounds also provides a platform for the children from these villages to improve upon their agility and activeness, while sensitising them on the concept of reuse and recycle,” added Mr. Sharma.
Discarded tyres or end-of-life tyres, in India, are increasingly being consumed by the environmentally hazardous so-called pyrolysis units in the unorganised sector. The other common usages of such tyres are:
· Partially better tyres are refurbished (retreaded or patched using gaiters) and sold in tier II cities
· Also used for engineering recovery, where in the crumb or reclaim rubber is extracted for reuse
· In case nothing works, tyres are sent to brick kilns to be used as fuel