September 20, 2024: Researchers say tire emissions pose a threat to global health, and EVs could make the problem worse. When contemplating the emissions from road vehicles, we often about the various gases coming out of the tailpipe. However, new research shows that we should be more concerned with the harmful particles that are shed from tires and brakes. New research efforts are only just beginning to reveal the impact of near-invisible tire and brake dust. A report from the Pew Charitable Trust found that 78 percent of ocean microplastics are from synthetic tire rubber.
(Excerpted from The Drive a publication focusing on car news, tech, and culture.)

January 28, 2023:  A 30’ x 12’ art installation created by MacPherson and Obrecht is featured in the Center for Maine Contemporary Art 2023 Biennial. Follow this link to take a virtual walk through. It is an honor to be selected for this juried exhibition and to be able to present new work to an arts audience. The museum context offers a unique opportunity to employ an arts activism approach in the consideration of both the opportunities and the impacts of transportation rubber. The exhibition runs from January 28 - May7, 2023.

February 4, 2021: The Rubber Impact Project’s abstract was accepted for The Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability, at Vrije University Amsterdam, hosted in partnership with On Sustainability Research Network. On Sustainability Research Network is brought together by a common concern for sustainability from a holistic perspective, where environmental, cultural, economic, and social interests intersect. It seeks to build an epistemic community to make linkages across disciplinary, geographic, and cultural boundaries and to build strategies for action. Our poster and 10 minute presentation will be included under the education, assessment, and policy theme of their conference. Registration is open.

January 14, 2021: The Rubber Impact Project has been invited to present a poster session and slideshow presentation at RubberCon in February 2021. RubberCon is an international rubber conference organized each year in partnership with IRCO, an association of rubber businesses from all around the world. The theme of this year’s RubberCon focuses on a wide range of issues related to the environment and the recycling of rubber materials. RIP will showcase our multi-pronged systems approach to direct inner tube reuse that leverages existing community programming, as well as how our project helps to raise awareness about transportation rubber end-of-life issues and rubber particulate pollution.

September 17, 2020: The inimitable San Francisco based broke ass stuart connects with MacPherson and Obrecht to amplify the work of the Rubber Impact Project by publishing a brief overview of the project. The article sounds the alarm about the far reaching environmental impacts surrounding transportation rubber, and also includes recommendations for lessening those impacts. broke ass stuart was eager to inform their 150,000 followers about the under-the-radar threats posed by tire rubber and the significant resource waste of used inner tubes. They will continue to publish relevant updates.

August 13, 2020: The Rubber Impact Project has been longlisted in the Sustainable Design Category for 2020 by the Dezeen Design Awards. We are thrilled to be included with other global designers vying for these prestigious awards. This international recognition not only provides publicity for the project, but also validates the project’s social and environmental responsibility and our approach in leveraging design, art, education, communication, and material research as relevant and innovative. It highlights this waste issue and the value of a community perspective when addressing sustainability. In our submission materials we frame our project as an “opportunity template” that can be used at the community level to blend inspired design with human interaction in order to facilitate needed systemic change.

July 17, 2020: The Rubber Impact Project set up a free grab-and-go inner tube reuse station in front of SF architectural firm Plum Architects. Roberta Wahl, founder and lead architect of Plum offered the use of an unused entryway to serve as an accessible location for this experiment. The before and after images shows what happened over the course of 3 days. On Friday, July 17th a wire bin with approximately 100 tubes, stocked with resource sheets on how to prep and work with tubes, was set out. By Monday morning July 20th, about 20 tubes remained and only 1 resource sheet.

July 2, 2020: Ecobrands Group of Boulder, Colorado partnered with the Rubber Impact Project to reuse and upcycle 500 mountain bike tubes shipped to their facility. Their group includes the companies, Alchemy Goods, and Green Guru, both of which upcycle waste mountain bike tubes into bags, wallets and accessories. They will use the tubes collected from SF bike shops by the Rubber Impact Project in the production of their high-quality, durable products that are available at shops across the U.S. and online.

June 11, 2020:  The Restoration Planting Manager at Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) received 1200 waste inner tubes collected from SF bicycle shops by the Rubber Impact Project.  FUF will use these tubes to begin their new program of upcycling inner tubes as tree ties. Inner tubes are well suited for tree ties due to the rubber’s strength and flexibility. They provide just enough support for young trees to protect them from wind and weather, yet not so much that growing trees don’t establish their own strength.  This program represents a positive and user friendly approach to reusing this material in the urban landscape.

April 22, 2020: California College of the Arts Newsroom posts article about the Rubber Impact Project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.  Where the Rubber Meets the Recycling
“As we mark the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, it is crucial to recognize that our material resources on this planet are not limitless and wasting them creates negative environmental, social, and economic impacts,” MacPherson [project lead] said of the project’s relevance to the important environmental milestone. “There are opportunities to make systemic change all around us. We just need to look at our products and materials with new eyes and shift our mindset.”

April 3, 2020: The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended everyone wear face coverings in public spaces. Reclaimed bicycle inner tube is a great substitute for new commercial elastic. Rubber Impact Project team member Ellen Field, as well as Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Partnerships at California College of the Arts, Julie Kirgis, have both adapted DIY Covid-19 cloth mask patterns using cut inner tube strips. These rubber and cotton masks can be washed and dried on high heat at home for use in reducing the spread of disease among citizens out and about in the world. CCA community contributes time, talent to flatten the curve

April 2, 2020: The Office of Sustainability at San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has added the Rubber Impact Project's K-5 Elementary School Module as part of SFUSD's Earth Day Every Day (EDED) activities. In ‘search’ box select ‘zero waste’ and scroll to access our web resources. The Module uses dimensional learning appropriate for social studies, art, science, and more to teach children about material lifecycles and a more sustainable circular economy. Hands-on maker projects with bicycle inner tubes introduce students to dead end material flows and unique reuse opportunities. Includes techniques for preparing waste inner tubes and creating with this engaging “raw” material. Content aligns with Common Core, Next Generation Science, California Art, and National Curriculum for Social Studies. 

April 2, 2020: In support of their partnership with the Rubber Impact Project, Friends of the Urban Forest has redesigned their cross brace signage to include an area to highlight the Rubber Impact Project and information on the reuse of waste bike inner tubes as tree ties.  We look forward to seeing these around San Francisco and hope that they will promote further dialog around the practice of material reuse. 

March 5, 2020: The material sample set that the Rubber Impact Project team submitted in late February to Material ConneXion in NYC has moved to the "juried" stage for inclusion in their library. They commented that the look and quality of the material exceeded their expectations. As international leaders in the design world, Material ConneXion is positioned to normalize reuse through their material offerings, within their client base—and by extension, encourage the reuse of viable material resources within the professional practice of design. They will be contacting us soon for further specifics. Material ConneXion is a materials consultancy that helps companies source advanced materials to enhance the performance, aesthetics and sustainability of their projects.

March 4, 2020: Friends of the Urban Forest has piloted the material for use as arbor ties and have found that the thin tubes generally used in 10 speed bikes serve them best. They are continuing to test the material but have already expressed enthusiastic support for its reuse in landscaping. If their findings are as anticipated they will submit a formal letter of recommendation for the professional reuse of this material. This will help enormously as we reach out to more organizations working in gardening and landscaping.

January 26, 2020: California College of the Arts Materials Library displays waste bicycle inner tubes as a resource for design and art applications. Displaying self-sourced, self-processed, waste inner tube rubber within the context of a materials library legitimizes and advocates for the practice of its reuse. Reusing materials conserves global resources and reduces air and water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Design schools produce tomorrows design leaders; experimentation and adaptation of reuse practices within this setting can evolve into industry norms. As a community, designers contribute largely to the way our world looks and functions, establishing the practice of reuse as a first step in material sourcing is critical as we face the challenges of climate change.

January 24, 2020: Take-A-Tube, Leave-A-Tube is an action and awareness campaign at California College of the Arts (CCA) promoting the reuse opportunities of inner tube rubber for artists and designers. The installation supports the recent inclusion by CCA’s Materials Library of this self-sourced, used raw material. With volumes of waste bicycle inner tubes destined for landfills estimated well over a hundred thousand annually in San Francisco alone, it is incumbent upon makers and designers to find creative reuse solutions for this material. So ‘Take A Tube’ for use in your next project, or if you don’t have plans for its reuse, ‘Leave A Tube’ for another CCA maker.

November 12, 2019: Academy of Art University’s School of Fashion requests 50 tubes for their Footwear and Accessories Division for students to work with during their Spring Semester. The School of Fashion has been at the forefront of incorporating sustainable design practices within their program. We look forward to seeing the results on the runway this Spring. The Fashion School is thrilled to partner with the Rubber Impact Project as we explore further opportunities for collaboration.

November 8, 2019: California College of the Arts Materials Library adds a self-sourced, self-processed, used, raw material to their sample collection. They are the first materials library in the nation to do so. This visionary addition of including waste bicycle inner tube rubber among their sample listings is a much needed step in normalizing the practice of upcycling within art and design schools and communities. Please support this effort by using inner tube rubber in your next project.

November 4, 2019: Climate Designers Launch Event/Opening featuring a retrospective of Mandana MacPherson’s design and activist work. The Rubber Impact Project team was invited to set up an exhibition at California College of the Arts (CCA), Center for Impact to both promote the work of the Center and to connect with other designers working in sustainability. The retrospect presents a selection of work with inner tube rubber that ranges from formal material studies to couture. By showing this work at CCA the Rubber Impact Team seeks to support on campus efforts to encourage material upcycling generally and re-use of this material specifically.

October 24, 2019: Partnering with 11 bike shops in the city of San Francisco, the Rubber Impact Project is collecting their waste inner tubes for a period of 3 months in order to establish data to estimate the number of tubes that go to San Francisco landfills each year. No formal accounting has ever been done on this material. Early estimates suggest numbers in the hundreds of thousands in San Francisco alone. Californa College of the Arts has given us a large storage unit to serve our collection needs.

September 18, 2019: César Chávez Elementary School in San Francisco’s Mission District is piloting inner tubes to replace expensive exercise sensory bands. These are used around the legs of school chairs or desks to give fidgety kids something to kick and get out extra energy. Bands like these help kids while listening and learning. Having their feet active increases their neuro-transmitters so that they are able to stay more focused in the classroom. The Learning Specialist at César Chávez also appreciates that these are a repurposed, free material that are easily sourced from the local bike shop. This also provides an opportunity to discuss issues regarding resources and re-use of materials within the classroom. SFUSD is considering this use of waste inner tubes district-wide.

August 5, 2019: Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) is piloting a program with the Rubber Impact Project testing the integrity of using waste inner tubes for staking young, freshly planted trees in San Francisco. The material currently used is very similar to inner tube rubber, however it is a product that they buy new. Using inner tube rubber for this purpose provides young trees with needed support while also being flexible. Furthermore it is a great way for FUF to expand their commitment to sustainability through material reuse. We look forward to hearing from FUF about their experience and whether we can implement an ongoing reuse program for them with neighboring bike shops.