A visit to Schwalbe: Black and green?

Adrian Kaether

· 20.10.2021

Photo: Andreas Dobslaff

A bicycle tyre manufacturer with production in the Far East is not exactly predestined to be an eco-pioneer. This makes it all the more astonishing how committed Schwalbe is to the issue of sustainability.

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Schwalbe began recycling its first bicycle tyres back in the 1990s and has been a pioneer in sustainability ever since. In the meantime, the tyre giant - advised by the inventor of the Cradle-to-cradle principleMichael Braungart - is working on a comprehensive, professional sustainability concept to ultimately make the entire company climate-neutral. We were able to find out how this is to be achieved during a visit to the new Schwalbe company headquarters in the Bergisches Land region.

BIKE visits Schwalbe as part of the RIDE GREEN project

Schwalbe's headquarters are located in Reichshof in the Bergisches Land region. There are branches in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy and North America, among others.

Only conventional on the outside. In the new company headquarters, great importance was attached to renewable raw materials and the recyclability of the building materials. This means that 80 per cent of the building materials can be easily recycled at the end of their useful life.

The Schwalbe Marathon was the company's first big success and at the same time a statement for longevity - sustainable, even if it wasn't called that in the 1980s.

Finally, the Schwalbe Marathon was even recycled in an elaborate process. Unfortunately, the project failed at the end of the 1990s.

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Photo: Andreas Dobslaff

Adrian Kaether

Editor

Adrian Kaether's favourite thing to do is ride mountain bikes on bumpy enduro trails. The tech expert and bike tester knows all about Newton metres and watt hours, high and low-speed damping. As test manager at MYBIKE, Adrian also likes to think outside the box and tests cargo bikes and step-through bikes as well as the latest (e-)MTBs.

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A visit to Schwalbe: Black and green?

BIKE visits Schwalbe as part of the RIDE GREEN project

Adrian Kaether

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