Recycled tyre furniture, it’s a thing

Recycled black tyres are being made into chairs and tables to provide comfort to Fieldays goers.

Retyred Furniture exhibitor Janice Page, a Fieldays first timer, has her tent set up opposite the Bledisloe building and said the experience so far is great.

“I really like the friendly agricultural audience. I think because they are outdoorsy they are generally more intelligent than the ones that sit on the couch all day,” Page said.

The furniture is made the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in a workshop that employs eight to 16 people, “depending on who shows up that day”.

The tables and chairs are designed by a couple in Australia and Retyred Furniture buys through them.

The framework is all pre-cut and put together by hand. The strips that make the chair seat are cut with a knife and glued together and then stitched and stapled.

“We like to call it repurposed. They have a new purpose,” she said.

Importing the furniture takes four to six weeks.

It is not stocked in stores, but customers can contact them through their website.

According to Page it takes 30,000 years for tyres to decompose completely, so the reuse of them in furniture makes them durable.

“We’re using a problem that we don’t have many solutions for as yet,” she said.

“The furniture itself is recycled, durable, and it’s comfortable and the fact that it’s recycled tyres, I think it’s quirky and it catches people’s attention. But it’s the comfort that sells it.”