The Trowbridge man turning old motorsport tyres into trainers

A graduate is making trainers out of old tyres to try and reduce waste in the motorsport industry.

Alex Witty, 25, from Trowbridge turned his student bedroom into a workshop while studying at the University of Brighton.

The trainers he created have soles made from combined race tyre rubber and recycled natural rubber.

"I was shocked to find out that most motorsport tyres are burnt after each race," he said.

Mr Witty works in Bath and is a graduate in Sustainable Product Design. Speaking to BBC Radio Wiltshire, he admitted he "wasn't winning any Flatmate of the Year awards" for his experiments.

He said: "As the university facilities were closed due to Covid, it forced me to convert my bedroom into a workshop,

"I was recycling materials such as coffee and ocean plastic in rows of panini presses and melting seaweed polymers in the student kitchen."

Then he heard about how many tyres are thrown out from motor racing.

"The Australian Grand Prix was cancelled and I heard that 1,800 brand-new tyres shipped back to the UK were to be incinerated.

"Surely I could find a better use for them," he said.

Formula 1 alone discards more than 40,000 tyres annually, which are sent to UK concrete factories to be incinerated as an alternative source of fuel.

Mr Witty's research into making the trainers has led him to testing methods which sound like experiments from science fiction: vulcanisation, micronisation and cryogenic grinding.

He has travelled to Bahrain, Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal for shoemaking courses, meetings and collaboration talks with world-leading industry experts.

"Over the past two years, I've engaged with tyre manufacturers, shoe producers, material scientists and race series organisers, including Formula 1 and Formula E," he said.

Mr Witty explained there is now a "patented process to combine used race tyre rubber with recycled natural rubber to create the shoe soles".

"The uppers are made from waste leather and recycled polyester lining and laces," he added.

His work has not stopped either as he has been looking into polyester recycling techniques to create new yarns from waste motorsport clothing to create knitted trainer uppers.

His business Compound Footwear has had funding from Innovate UK, Santander and Verizon and has now launched a Kickstarter campaign.

Managing director of Silverstone, Stuart Pringle, said: "Compound Footwear's solution to sneaker and race tyre waste along with its mission to create a greener future in motorsport is commendable and we are delighted to be supporting their initiative."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]