From Planters to Pet Bed: 10 Useful Things To Make Out of Worn-out Tyres

Playing with worn-out tyres of bicycles, bikes or cars might evoke a sense of nostalgia in everyone but ever wonder what happened to all those tyres?

India produces around 6,50,000 tyres and discards 2,75,000 tyres every day, according to a report by the Chintan Environment and Research Action Group in 2017. However, not all of these get recycled.

Since they cannot be reused in a vehicle, they definitely can be utilised in different ways. They can be converted into a variety of forms ranging from planters to play stations.

Here are a few do-it-yourself tips to zhoosh up your home with old tyres.

1. Making a planter out of tyres

Rajendra Singh from Sonepat, Haryana, is a gardening enthusiast. He has been growing different varieties of plants on his terrace and has been making planters by himself using waste materials including worn-out old tyres.

His method of making a DIY planter out of an old worn-out tyre requires the following:

• Clean the worn-out or old tyres.
• Make it look nice by painting the tyre any colour of your choice.
• Take a polythene sheet or bag, make a hole at the bottom of it and then place it inside the tyre.
• Now fill it with soil and plant some seeds of your choice.
• More than one plant can be planted in a single tyre planter.
• Vegetables can also be grown in these planters.

Another way of making fun looking planters out of old tyres is as follows:

• Cut the tyre from the sides in any design as per your imagination.
• Then reverse the tyre inside out.
• Can attach a separate cut part of the tyre for the bottom and fix them to the planter by putting holes on the bottom and attaching the two using a nut and bolt or by tying them using wires.
• The planter is ready and it can be painted with some fun colours.
• After drying the paint, a polythene sheet or bag can be placed inside it and filled with soil and then plant your favourite vegetable or plants in it.

2. Making a vertical planter

A vertical planter is unique and can add a special charm to your garden. Here’s how to make one:

• Vertical planters require a wall to be hung. So, find a spot for it on a wall and then use nails to hang the tyres.
• The clean tyres can be painted with the colours of your choice both inside and outside.
• After drying the paint it can be filled with soil.
• Once it’s filled with enough soil, you can use it as a planter.
• Instead of filling it with soil, you can also place small pots upright in it.
• Now it’s ready to be hung on the wall.

You can also make two vertical planters out of one tyre by cutting one tyre from the middle into two semi-circular pieces and hanging them on the wall by following the rest of the above-mentioned steps.

3. Making hanging planters

All you have to do here is to clean it and place it straight horizontally and fill it with soil.
You can hang it anywhere in your house on your balcony or the courtyard or even on a tree using ropes. When painted in bright colours these planters will make your garden look more appealing.

4. Making a seat or stool out of tyres

Old tyres can also be used for making seats or stools for sitting. You will need two tyres, a rope and a piercing object to make holes in the tyres.

You will need to:

• Clean the tyres.
• Make holes in the tyres at equal distances as shown in the above picture.
• Now use the rope to weave through these holes in a criss-cross manner.
• Once done with the weaving, the tyre can be placed on top of the other and the seat is ready.
• Apart from a tyre seat, a stool can also be made out of these. You will need some additional material like wood, old clothes, big staples etc.
• First, you have to connect two tyres using nuts and bolts and then cover the tyres from all sides using a cloth, as shown in the picture. You can also use ropes to cover the tyres.
• Then take a piece of circular wood and fit it in the middle of the tyre and your stool is ready.

5. Making a chair out of tyres

• Take two tyres, clean and place them one over the other and connect them and then paint them.
• Now to sit on it, you can either use a piece of wood and place it in the middle like we used for making the stool or make a base by weaving ropes in a criss-cross way.
• The seat is ready.

For making it look like a chair you can cut the tyre into a semi-circular shape and attach it to the sheet with the help of nuts and bolts as shown in the picture above.

6. Making a coffee table

For making a coffee table you just need to put two tyres one over the other and paint them. Then you can place a glass on top of them and use it as a coffee table anywhere.

7. Making a hammock

All you need for this is to:

• Put three holes at equal distances on the tyre.
• Now take out three strong ropes and tie them tightly and separately through the holes from the inside.
• Now tie these ropes together on the top and then secure them to a strong branch of a tree.
• Just make sure that the tyre is not tied too high from the ground and the knot of the rope is tied tightly.

Another way to make a hammock is to first prepare the tyre seat and then make holes in the tyre on both sides and tie them with ropes. It can also be hung on balconies if there are hooks on the ceiling.

8. Build a play station

Anuya Trivedi from Ahmedabad, Gujarat has been making play stations for children in government schools and slum areas out of old tyres through her small startup named ‘Green Buddies’.
She has been refurbishing tyres into different forms for children as well as helping with waste management. For her efforts, Anuya received the Global Recycling Award in 2020.

To know more about making a play station from old tyres, click here.

9. A fish tank

For this, you will need tyres as well as cement.

• First of all, cut the tyre in any shape from one side and now invert it.
• After this place it on a plastic sheet and pour cement in the bottom part. Add cement in such a way that it acts as a base after drying.
• Now paint it from both the outside and inside.
• Place it anywhere in your balcony or courtyard and fill it with water and put some small and big stones for decorative purposes.
• Your fish tank is ready.

10. Make a Bed for Your Pet

With a slightly larger tyre, you can easily make a good bed for your dog or cat.

• Clean the tyre and paint it with a colour of your choice.
• In the middle part of the tyre, you can put a blanket inside and can also keep your pet’s toys and your pet bed is ready.

Read this story in Hindi here.

(Edited by Yoshita Rao)