In a country grappling with mountains of waste and a pressing need for sustainable solutions, one designer in Kanpur is quietly rewriting the rules of urban innovation. Vaishali Biyani, a former recruiter-turned-upcycler, has built a company that transforms discarded truck tyres into striking urban furniture, art installations and public park infrastructure. Her start-up, De’Dzines, operates at the unlikely intersection of circular economy, rural employment and high-concept design. In spaces as diverse as five-star hotels and snowy army outposts, her creations endure and inspire. What began as a curiosity about tyre waste has grown into a bold, scalable vision for environmental reinvention.

In the snow-clad silence of Siachen, India’s highest military outpost, stands a curious piece of furniture made not of wood, nor of steel but from discarded tyres. Two years since it was installed, the chair hasn’t warped, cracked or budged. Even in snowstorms, the furniture is standing strong. It was one of many quiet validations for a project that, to many, still sounds improbable: transforming end-of-life tyres into swings, sculpture parks and stylish indoor planters.

On the dusty fringes of Kanpur, a former industrial powerhouse now known more for its mountains of discarded waste than for its textiles, an unexpected kind of manufacturing is quietly reshaping public parks and luxury hotels. The raw material? Old truck tyres.

At the heart of this transformation is an unlikely entrepreneur. Once immersed in the startup buzz of Delhi, she spent over a decade building a successful recruitment company. But a twist of fate took her to Kanpur, where she spotted something that others had learned to ignore: waste.

“Waste was everywhere, from roads, outside factories to back alleys. But tyres stood out. They were built to last and nobody knew what to do with them,” said Vaishali Biyani, Founder of De’Dzines.

Her shift from the digital corridors of Delhi to the tyre-strewn lanes of Kanpur was anything but planned. “I had no intention of starting over. My recruitment firm was doing well. But when I relocated in 2017, I began noticing the sheer scale of unutilised waste, especially tyres,” she admitted.

What followed was a period of grassroots immersion. By day, she continued recruitment work. By night, she sat with tyre scrap dealers, learning the material inside out. She recalls walking through filthy lanes where tyres lay in heaps, asking questions most dealers never expected.

In 2019, she registered her company De’Dzines and formally launched commercial operations in 2021. Her goal was to upcycle truck tyres into handmade furniture, planters and urban sculptures.

The choice of truck tyres was deliberate as they comprise better rubber composition, more wire and stronger polymers.

The early days weren’t easy. Setting up in Kanpur came with its own cultural and logistical hurdles. “People here had never heard of upcycling.

They thought I was collecting garbage, and when I tried to hire people, nobody wanted to work with tyres. Even explaining the concept was a battle,” recalled Biyani.

Her 20,000-square-foot workshop in Kanpur became ground zero for a new type of production rooted in low-tech and high-ingenuity processes. “We use small tools, not big machines. Everything is handmade, from cutting, cleaning to polishing. Each product is crafted by a team of 15 full-time workers, all from nearby villages. For larger orders, the team expands to 50,” explained Biyani.

She recalled that hiring was a nightmare. Hence, she trained locals, most of whom had never worked in manufacturing. Today, they handle everything from wire removal to final finishing.

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

The idea didn’t start in a studio but in scrap yards and municipal back alleys, where tyres lay heaped, burnt, buried and forgotten. Starting with a handful of used tyres, the founder and his lean team began crafting swings and planters by hand. Today, the company consumes between 10–12 tonnes of tyres monthly, rising significantly during major government projects.

“We usually do two big waste to wonder parks each year. If it’s a two-acre project, it could require tonnes of tyres. We’ve done parks where the government provided tyres themselves; we just deducted that cost from the tender,” said Biyani.

She added that in these early partnerships, the team didn’t have the luxury of choosing tyre types. But now, they get to select what is needed. The company now focuses on nylon-based truck tyres, especially from buses and transport bodies.

Changing consumer perception was perhaps the biggest challenge as tyres are dirty and smelly. People don’t even want to touch them. So she launched a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model to test market acceptance. The Covid-19 lockdowns, surprisingly, helped.

“Everyone moved online. I started listing products on Amazon before I even had a website. The response was overwhelming. People liked what they saw and left great reviews. That gave us confidence to double down,” averred Biyani.

But sustainability messaging wasn’t the silver bullet as Indians don’t pay extra for eco-friendly, she contended. The company had to position the products for its durability, aesthetics and value.

She recalls the initial scepticism from customers divulging, “We had people asking that won’t this smell or will it leave black marks. So we added multiple layers of polish, built a hygiene protocol and offered an easy return policy. If you didn’t like the product, you could send it back. No questions asked,” she explained.

The strategy worked. The brand slowly built a reputation not just for environmental responsibility but also for reliability and craftsmanship.

UPCYCLED PRODUCT

At De’Dzines, each tyre begins its second life with a rigorous cleaning process. Steel wires are removed, often manually. Then comes cutting, which is a precision job to ensure the structural integrity of the product. After shaping, the rubber is treated with safe, non-toxic polish and reinforced with recycled wood or steel depending on the final design.

“The design philosophy is simple. Form follows function but beauty matters. We don’t want the product to scream ‘I’m made of waste’. We want it to feel like something you’d be proud to place in your home or office,” she explained.

Some products take two days to complete. Others, like swing seats or large benches, can take over a week. The company isn’t chasing mass production but chasing quality, story and purpose.

While European and Australian companies offered to export tyre scrap to her for free, she refused. “The logistics defeat the purpose. Sustainability isn’t just about materials; it’s also about carbon footprint. Why ship tyres across oceans when Uttar Pradesh is full of them,” said Biyani.

She signed MOUs with municipal corporations across Agra, Lucknow, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur. These urban bodies provided used tyres from fleet vehicles.

While scrap tyres are generally expensive in India, this circular sourcing model keeps costs manageable. “The tyre scrap market in India is fragmented, expensive and full of middlemen. That’s why we prefer working directly with municipal bodies,” noted Biyani.

For projects with unpredictable demand, she still sources from the open scrap market.

BACKYARDS TO FIVE-STAR LOBBIES

As public confidence grew, so did the scale of projects. De’Dzines moved from retail to B2B, then to government partnerships. One milestone was supplying planters to the Shangri-La Eros Hotel in Delhi. “The hotel placed them in every room and throughout the gardens. That proved we could pitch to luxury hospitality,” said Biyani.

Today, De’Dzines has designed and completed over 10 public parks in partnership with local governments. It handles everything from concept to installation. It’s no longer just about products but transforming spaces.

In one project near Prayagraj, she repurposed over 4,000 tyres to create an entire play zone that included benches, see-saws, tyre walls and garden edges. “We turned waste into wonder. The joy on children’s faces is our biggest endorsement,” quipped Biyani.

For a country drowning in waste yet starved for sustainable innovation, De’Dzines offers a blueprint that blends environmental purpose with rural employment and scalable design. Her journey is also a quiet rebuke to the idea that innovation only happens in technological hubs.

“I didn’t come here to start a recycling revolution. I was just curious about where tyres go when they die. That one question changed everything,” she contended.

As she trains her team for their next urban park project, surrounded by stacks of discarded rubber, the message is clear that even the dirtiest waste can have a second life with beauty and durability.

HANDMADE, YET SCALABLE

One might imagine such a business struggling with scale. After all, each piece, be it a sculpture or a chair, is largely handmade. But ingenuity, it turns out, is as core to the company’s identity as sustainability.

A telling moment came during an export order. A client requested 500 customised planters with a 20-day delivery timeline. “It wasn’t our design. It was theirs and very detailed. So we built a single mould for it, trained 50 people and finished in 15 days instead of 20,” recalled a confident Biyani.

This success paved the way for future scale-ups. The team has since developed moulds for several recurring products while still retaining flexibility for custom projects.

“We now know how to train fast, hire locally and deliver in volume. It’s a hybrid of craft and light manufacturing,” she added.

Alluding to working with different government bodies, Biyani spoke candidly about the public sectors’ promise and bureaucracy. “Municipal corporations are straightforward. We sign a simple MOU that lets us collect tyres for two or five years. In return, we give them a rate list for furniture or sculptures when needed. It’s simple and direct,” she contended.

Working with state transport undertakings like BEST or DTC, however, is a different story as their procurement is through massive tenders.

So, for now, she prefers to work with cities like Prayagraj, where the team completed nine junction designs and two parks in just 45 days.

LOOKING AHEAD

Much of the company’s growth has come not from sales teams but from serendipity and design.

One of the most fruitful connections came via social media, when a CSR head from Bridgestone discovered the team’s Instagram posts. Today, the company is working with Bridgestone on a multi-year sculptural design project in Pune.

Her vision now extends beyond upcycling. “We’re exploring modular designs that can be assembled onsite for large-scale installations,” she revealed. There are also plans to set up satellite workshops in other parts of UP using the same village employment model.

Eventually, she wants to export as she believes that the products should sit in parks in Dubai or public plazas in Europe. Not because they’re Indian or upcycled but because they’re beautiful and built to last.

As demand grows, the company is moving into newer segments. The next frontier is hospitality.

“We’re now working with luxury hotels, resorts and even army cantonments. Our products survive storms in Siachen. They survive monsoons in Goa. That’s our pitch: sustainable, durable and different,” quipped a cheerful Biyani.

She’s also gearing up for a major hospitality exhibition in Greater Noida from 3–6 August, where the team will launch a new line of indoor furniture made from upcycled tyres.

But challenges remain; chief among them is pricing. “A virgin plastic chair is cheaper than our tyre-based one. Convincing someone to pay a premium for sustainability is our biggest hurdle,” she contended.

There is a poetic irony in transforming black industrial waste into playful swings and public sculptures. It is perhaps this unlikely fusion of function and imagination that distinguishes the designer.

In places like Prayagraj, Pune and even Siachen, tyres are no longer confined to roads; they are finding new meaning as symbols of transformation.

For a small design company with ambitious ideas, it seemed that the path forward might indeed be paved, quite literally, with rubber. 

Birla Carbon, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality carbon materials, has been awarded the prestigious Platinum sustainability rating by EcoVadis, ranking it within the top one percent of all assessed companies globally. This honour recognises the firm’s enterprise-wide leadership in integrating sustainability across its operations, innovation and value chain.

The evaluation specifically commended its strong performance across four key areas: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. This achievement is further validated by extensive third-party certifications, with over 75 percent of operations certified to international standards including ISO 14001, ISO 50001, ISO 45001, SA8000 and ISO 27001, underscoring the consistency and strength of its sustainability management systems.

John Loudermilk, President and CEO, Birla Carbon, said, “This Platinum rating reflects the steady progress we are making in embedding sustainability at the core of our business. Our growth strategy is geared towards delivering sustainability through innovation, operational excellence and responsible practices across our global footprint. We continually invest in sustainability and circularity-driven processes, keeping our operations sustainably efficient while creating long-term value for our customers, partners, communities and employees. Our sustainability strategy, Share the Future, serves as a roadmap to a sustainable future and guides our actions towards our aspiration of reaching net zero carbon emissions over the next 25 years. Being recognised among the top one percent of companies globally is a testament to the commitment of our teams worldwide.”

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. recently conducted an educational seminar for local natural rubber farmers in partnership with the Surat Thani branch of the Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAOT). This marked the 10th such event since the programme's inception in 2020, involving 50 local farm households. Attendees received complimentary fertiliser, developed with RAOT's expertise, as part of the ongoing support.

The seminar curriculum covered essential agricultural topics, including soil and plant nutrition, correct fertiliser application and methods to prevent contamination in natural rubber. To commemorate the 10th seminar, the programme was expanded to include guest speakers from local government, police and healthcare. These guests addressed broader community and safety issues, such as human rights for foreign and minority workers, road safety and occupational health. A particular focus was placed on practical well-being, with the local hospital director offering guidance on preventing injuries during tree tapping and managing encounters with poisonous insects.

Post-event feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. Many expressed that they gained new, systematic knowledge about cultivation practices, despite years of experience. Several noted that hearing directly from a rubber manufacturer reinforced the critical importance of purity in their product. Others found the health and safety advice immediately useful. The engaging delivery of the seminar was also highlighted, with one farmer mentioning a desire to recommend the valuable and enjoyable experience to peers.

This initiative is a direct implementation of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Yokohama Rubber and RAOT in January 2020. The MoU focuses on economic support for farmers and improving supply chain traceability, aligning with the company's Procurement Policy for Sustainable Natural Rubber. Hosted in the region where Yokohama’s Thai natural rubber processing subsidiary, Y.T. Rubber Co., Ltd. (YTRC), operates, the seminar exemplifies the policy's guideline to support small-scale farmers within the supply chain.

As a founding member of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), Yokohama Rubber is committed to advancing these principles. The company views such efforts as integral to creating shared value under its sustainability slogan, ‘Caring for the Future’, and contributes to broader United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through the promotion of sustainable raw material procurement.

In a significant event for India’s rubber sector, Minister for Ports, Co-operation & Devaswoms V N Vasavan inaugurated a ceremony for the transfer of innovative latex-based paint technology. This eco-friendly paint, a product derived from natural rubber, was developed by the Rubber Products Incubation Centre of the Rubber Research Institute of India. The technology was formally handed over to Kerala Paints Industries Private Ltd., with the Minister highlighting the event's historic nature for launching a sustainable product and stressing the importance of increasing domestic natural rubber consumption to improve grower returns.

Rubber Board Executive Director M Vasanthagesan outlined the centre's role in converting research into market-ready goods, reaffirming the Board's dedication to creating innovative, value-added rubber products. The gathering also heard remarks from several key figures, including Mahatma Gandhi University's K V Dayal, RRII Director Dr Debabrata Ray, RRII Senior Scientist Dr Shera Mathew and Kerala Paints' Managing Director Midhun P Pullumettel.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has released its Monthly NR Statistical Report for November 2025, providing an overview of key developments in the global natural rubber sector.

While a modest rise in global production of 1.3 percent is anticipated for the year, this follows a revised, lower output forecast for Indonesia. Concurrently, worldwide demand is projected to grow by a more subdued 0.8 percent, bolstered by an upward adjustment in Indonesia's own consumption figures.

Recent price pressures have emerged due to this combination of uncertain supply, influenced by unpredictable weather patterns and generally muted demand. However, there are sporadic positive indicators, including noticeable recoveries within the tyre sector across some regional markets.