The first car tyres were white, not black, as the colour comes from the carbon black that is added to the tyre during manufacture to greatly improve wear and heat dissipation.
The natural colour of rubber is an off-white and the gleaming colour of those early tyres came from zinc oxide added to the mix.
Although they did look stylish they did not have great durability.
But the stylish quality did become popular in the 1950s with the introduction of the white wall tyre particularly on US luxury cars like the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham.
And to prove the old adage that everything old is new again, a tyre manufacturer has introduced a white wall or a colour stripe on tyres as an upmarket option.
As far as GDT is concerned, every tyre can be recycled into oil, carbon and steel and the prospect of recycled zinc oxide has captured the attention of COO Trevor Bayley who has discovered there is a market for recycled zinc oxide.
After all, it is widely used as an additive is a wide variety of rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cement, lubricants, paints, adhesives, fire retardants, foods, batteries. fire retardants, the list goes on to also include ointments and the ubiquitous Aussie summer sunscreen.
