Harvey Brodsky, managing director of the Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau (TRIB), recently sent a letter promoting retreads to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of Canada's Parliament. The letter reads as follows:
"Dear Prime Minister and all Members of the Canadian Parliament:
"The Tire Retread & Repair Information Bureau is an international, non-profit, member-owned industry association. I am writing today on behalf of our Canadian members in the tire retread and tire repair industries to bring your attention to the tremendous contribution our members make to both the environment and the economy throughout Canada.
"Thanks to retreading and properly made tire repairs, millions of gallons of oil are saved every year in Canada, while greatly reducing the scrap tire problem by enabling tires to have safe additional lives.
"The safety of retreaded tires has been proven and continues to be proven daily beyond a shadow of a doubt by millions of vehicles worldwide, including school and municipal buses; fire engines and other emergency vehicles; commercial and military airlines; taxis; small package delivery services such as FedEx, Purolator Currier and UPS; as well as by Canadian Pacific Railway; OC Transport in Ottawa; and countless other commercial vehicles in both the private and public sectors throughout Canada.
"We want to bring your attention to the fact that every major new tire manufacturer strongly supports retreading as part of the life cycle of a tire. There is even a U.S. Federal Executive Order (13149) mandating the use of retreaded tires on certain U.S. government vehicles.
"You might also be interested to know that I drive on retreads on my personal car, as do my wife and son on their vehicles.
"The purpose of this letter is to bring all of the above to your attention and to offer to send you our Retread Tire Information Packet, which includes a CD and two DVDs that explain and illustrate in great detail the environmental and economic benefits of retreaded tires.
"We hope you will take us up on our offer since the more you know about retreading, the better informaed you and your staff will be regarding the huge amount of money that can be saved by your government -- on the federal, provincial and local levels -- without sacrificing safety, performance or handling.
"The retread industry was green long before the word became fashionable. In fact, our industry can boast that a retreaded tire has one of the highest post-consumer contents of any recycled product, and refreshingly, the user of retreaded tire will always spend less than for a comparable new tire.
"In these days when every penny of savings counts in government spending, we hope you will allow us to send our materials and that you will speak up for retreading in Canada as a viable alternative to higher priced new tires. It's the right thing to do.
"We also will be happy to arrange a tour of a Canadian retread plant for you and any of your staff members who wish to see and better understand the retread process and to observe how a tire is properly retreaded and repaired.
"Our industry also maintains a speakers bureau and we will be happy to speak to any public sector or private sector group anywhere in Canada to more fully explain the many benefits retreading and proper tire repairs bring to private and public sector fleets everywhere. We look forward to hearing from you."
