Exploring the Potential of Rejected Tyres in Urban Furniture Design: A Sustainable Approach to Public Seating

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-970-4_28How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Rejected Tyres; Sustainable Urban Furniture; Public Seating Design; Waste Material Reuse

Abstract

Ghana’s urban environments are increasingly burdened by tyre waste, with limited strategies for sustainable reuse. At the same time, cities face a growing deficit in accessible, eco-friendly public seating infrastructure. This study explores the viability of utilizing rejected car tyres as a primary material in the design and fabrication of urban public seating. It seeks to address the pressing issues of urban waste management and environmental sustainability through creative and functional design solutions. The research adopted a practice-based design methodology supported by material experimentation and iterative prototyping. Rejected tyres were sourced, treated, and transformed into usable furniture elements. The design process emphasized ergonomics, durability, and aesthetic value. A half-round chair prototype was developed through sequential construction stages, documented with images and evaluated for performance and visual appeal. The study demonstrates that rejected tyres possess significant structural potential and resilience suitable for public seating. The resulting prototype met design expectations in terms of comfort, strength, and usability. Moreover, the reuse of tyres presents a practical approach to reducing non-biodegradable waste in urban settings. The study was limited to a single typology of urban furniture and lacked extensive user feedback data. Further investigation is required to test other forms and gather post-occupancy performance metrics. This work provides a replicable framework for integrating waste materials into public design. It highlights how tyre waste can be reimagined into high-impact, eco-friendly furniture interventions in cities. This study contributes to sustainable design literature by introducing a novel application of waste tyres in urban furniture, bridging material reuse with social and environmental responsibility.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Isaac Aidoo
AU  - Kenneth Fiati
AU  - Michael Afful
AU  - Michael Adika
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Exploring the Potential of Rejected Tyres in Urban Furniture Design: A Sustainable Approach to Public Seating
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering, Science, and Urban Sustainability (ICESUS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 445
EP  - 462
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-970-4_28
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-970-4_28
ID  - Aidoo2025
ER  -