I want to recycle old car tyres and sell them on - can I make money? DAVE FISHWICK replies

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I'm currently unemployed and looking to hopefully start my own business, you said it's never too late.

Can you imagine a business where businesses pay you for your raw materials? The very product you need to process through a plant that will then result in you having four products to sell back to the market. 

One of the four products will then enable you to be energy self-sufficient and to never rely on the national grid or to endure high energy costs. This business is also incredibly beneficial to the environment and will reduce land fill tonnage.

My idea is to start a tyre pyrolysis business, a method of melting down scrap tyres without oxygen, this results in four components that can be reused or sold on for future use.

Tyred idea or money spinner? Dave Fishwick gives his verdict 

As you're probably aware, businesses have to pay to have their customers old tyres disposed of in a proper fashion, currently the price per tyre for disposal is between £1.50 and £2 for a standard car tyre, and commercial tyres can be upwards of £10 per tyre. This in effect is them paying you for your raw materials.

I currently run a classic commercial vehicle restoration group, we restore old buses to take to shows and I know how to pull together a team and manage it.

I'd like to know what you think of my idea. I do have some savings to put into a business but obviously I don't want to throw it away either. 

Dave Fishwick, This Is Money’s business doctor says: I have heard of pyrolysis through research for a media project, and it seems like an excellent idea for waste products that can't be directly recycled - provided it's done in a way which doesn't harm the environment.

Some of the products of heating tyres are toxic, and critics of this process and waste incineration point to this as a potential danger, with the fact that carbon dioxide is still emitted from burning as another drawback.

I think it's wrong that we don't universally recycle tyres. As you said in your question, they're made from several materials, which all have uses and value.

As you'll know, high-value tyres, like those for heavy commercial vehicles and aircraft, are often re-manufactured. It used to be common with car tyres too, but as the cost of the tyres has come down as many are imported from China. 

There is an issue of safety though; with modern cars having higher top speeds, re-moulded tyres had a lower speed rating than new tyres.

Tyres are incredibly tough and flexible and provide excellent grip so that they can be repurposed and recycled. 

One inventive application I saw is that sections of the tread are fitted as a non-slip surface for outdoor steps. I'm sure there are also many other uses they could be put to.

It's unbelievable how much we throw away when it could be reused, repurposed or recycled. Plastic also fits into the category of a valuable and helpful commodity, often just discarded, buried or even worse, burned in the open air in some countries.

Even plastic, which we think we're recycling, is frequently exported, and we can't be sure it isn't just being dumped.

At my local recycling centre, I've noticed that sometimes they have a skip to recycle plastics, and sometimes they don't, meaning plastic then has to go into the general waste and, I assume, into a landfill. 

However, they have a used tyre section; it would be interesting to see what happens to them.

One reply you often hear when you ask why innovative solutions like this don't happen on a large scale is cost. It costs too much.

Suppose this is the only reason, given that so much waste goes into rivers that there's a plastic island in the ocean or is burned in the open air or buried. In that case, it's incumbent on our governments to tip the scales in favour of sustainability.

I heard that using new plastic is only slightly cheaper than recycled plastic. In this case, a small levy on new plastic production would bring recycled material back into a commercially viable resource rather than a problem and a pollutant.

Another effective solution that works for plastic bottles in some countries is a deposit scheme. This gives the empty bottle a value and drastically reduces the amount which ends up in landfills or, even worse, littering the countryside or polluting waterways. 

The same type of scheme could perhaps be applied to tyres and other products. This could encourage manufacturers with the resources and expertise to deal with their end-of-life products.

I fear that setting up and equipping a commercial-scale operation and navigating the environmental regulations could be prohibitively expensive. Maybe it's just too expensive for a small company to afford.

I have a friend who set up something very similar to your idea, and unfortunately, they went bankrupt due to the massive costs. I try very hard not to be negative in my column. 

However, part of your question asked me for my opinion of "Do I think you could lose all your savings?" and on this occasion, Yes, I think the costs of running this business up into profit may be unsustainable.

However, on this occasion, I would be delighted to be proven wrong, as I would love to see more recycling in the UK.

Good luck!