Freee Recycle and its partners have invested over $5 million to transform discarded vehicle tyres into usable products in the last three year, the management has stated.
The company also disclosed that with the employment of 160 workers, its sole facility in Ibadan’s industrial area can handle around 150 car tyres per hour and has gone through 250,000 tyres so far.
Ifedolapo Runsewe, Managing Director of Freee Recycle in chats with DAILY INDEPENDENT, said: “Our plan is to scale up to one million tyres per annum or more, and to achieve that we will need to set up other crushing sites around the country.
“Some of our best sellers are rubber tiles that sell for about $45 per square metre. Freee Recycle also produces mats, paving bricks, marine bumpers, kerbs, insulation rolls, and other rubber accessories”.
She noted that Freee Recycle’s marketing strategy includes highlighting to price-sensitive consumers that its goods are more durable, ethically produced, support local businesses, and solve an existing problem.
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“The workflow in our factory involves using specialised equipment to break down the tyres, remove embedded objects, and then mould the salvaged rubber into various products for industrial, commercial, and residential use”.
According to Runsewe, two main strategies to source raw materials are: “The purchase of discarded tyres from registered vendors and agents at about $0.10 per piece, creating business opportunities up the chain, such as auto repair services gain additional revenue from selling their old tyres, while Freee Recycle’s collectors earn money by identifying and supplying stockpiles to the company, and secondly, Freee Recycle encourages organisations with fleets of vehicles to dispose of their used tyres responsibly through an extended producer responsibility (EPR) programme. This programme enables organisations to divert the flow of old tyres away from landfills. Partner organisations are issued certificates that detail the materials received, their processing, the resulting products, and how the process contributed to reduced emissions.
“We’re trying to shift from a linear to a circular economy, so there must be a plan for disposing of the materials that manufacturers are putting out there when they reach the end of their product’s life cycle
“This is one of the reasons she is so excited about Freee Recycle’s latest offering: upscaled and eco-friendly flip-flops.
“We’ve had our eye on the sustainable fashion industry from the very beginning. While visiting Kenya in 2019, I saw Maasai warriors wearing sandals made from waste tyres. It made a lot of sense,” Runsewe said
