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. 

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The German Rubber Industry Association (wdk) has sounded an alarm over an exceptionally difficult economic situation facing the rubber sector. Soaring raw material prices and persistently high energy costs, exacerbated by the Iran war, are coinciding with weak industrial demand. wdk Chief economist Michael Berthel noted an almost unprecedented economic disparity, as raw material costs approach historical highs from 2011 and 2022 while a lack of demand prevents any offset for manufacturers.

Since the final quarter of 2025, prices for key inputs have risen sharply. Natural rubber has jumped more than 40 percent within months, while butadiene-based synthetic rubbers have increased over 30 percent. EPDM synthetic rubber, carbon black and oil-based plasticisers have all risen more than 20 percent, with some individual chemicals exceeding 40 percent cost growth in just a few weeks.

Energy prices remain a major burden, with Middle East developments fuelling market uncertainty. Risks to international transport and supply chains persist, and German rubber companies are closely watching potential impacts on raw material availability and global logistics flows.

Berthel warned that firms face mounting pressure from high costs, geopolitical instability and structural disadvantages in Germany, with no short-term relief in sight. The industry depends heavily on fair and reliable partnerships across the value chain, as processing companies alone cannot absorb the current strain. He called for fair solutions and a shared understanding of this exceptional situation.

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The Rubber Board of India has confirmed the continuation of all existing central sector schemes for the 2026-27 fiscal year at unchanged rates. Financial aid for new planting will be restricted to estates utilising poly bag or root trainer plants sourced solely from Board-approved nurseries, with applicants required to submit the original purchase bill. This mandatory verification step aims to ensure quality and authenticity of planting materials used across the sector.

Support for rain guarding and spraying operations will be channelled exclusively through Rubber Producers’ Societies. These societies must include GST bills for all acquired materials when applying. The official timeline for submitting applications will be announced separately by the Board, giving producers adequate time to prepare documentation and coordinate with their respective societies before the deadline.

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The Rubber Board of India has announced a temporary engagement for a young professional within its Market Promotion Division, located at the RRII campus in Puthuppally, Kottayam. The selected individual will assist with division activities and promote ‘mRube’, the electronic trading platform for natural rubber.

Candidates must hold an MBA in Marketing or Agri Business Management with computer knowledge, while skills in digital marketing, sales or market research and proficiency in English and Hindi are preferred. Applicants aged up to 30 years as of 1 May 2026, will be considered for the one-year role, which offers a consolidated monthly pay of INR 25,000.

Interested individuals should send their applications to the Deputy Director (Marketing) at the Central Laboratory Building, RRII, Rubber Board PO, Kottayam – 686009 by 19 May 2026. Shortlisted names will appear on the Rubber Board’s website with interview details, as no separate communication will be sent.

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Bekaert has officially finalised its acquisition of Bridgestone’s tyre reinforcement operations in China and Thailand, after securing all necessary regulatory approvals and meeting standard closing conditions. The deal, now fully completed, marks a significant step in the Belgian company’s expansion strategy.

The transaction brings under Bekaert’s control two production facilities: Bridgestone (Shenyang) Steel Cord Co., Ltd. in China and Bridgestone Metalfa (Thailand) Co., Ltd. in Thailand. These plants specialise in manufacturing high-quality tyre cord products exclusively for Bridgestone tyres, and they will continue to supply Bridgestone under the new ownership, further deepening the longstanding partnership between the two firms.

Financially, the acquisition is expected to add roughly EUR 80 million to Bekaert’s annual consolidated sales. The EUR 60 million cash consideration for the deal was funded from the company’s available cash reserves.

Curd Vandekerckhove, CEO Rubber Reinforcement, said, “With the completion of this acquisition within our Rubber Reinforcement division, we are pleased to officially welcome the plant teams in China and Thailand to Bekaert. Our immediate focus is on a smooth transition and operational continuity while continuing to serve Bridgestone as a key strategic partner. The completion of the acquisition further strengthens the position of Bekaert in the tyre cord market, expands the global manufacturing footprint and deepens our longstanding partnership with Bridgestone. A long-term supply agreement ensures continued delivery of high-quality tyre reinforcement within a trusted supplier model.”

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