Re ‘Used car tyres a toughie' (The Weekend Sun, August 31).

Used tyres have been used in roading for more than 20 years to my knowledge. They make cheaper, safer and quieter asphalt bitumen/rubber surface than any other material. The steel can also be recycled once separated from the rubber.

The rubber can also be mixed with concrete to make smoother, safer surfaces and such resilient concrete can be used in the construction of buildings.

Mixed with concrete, rubber will extend the life of concrete considerably. Tyres used in rib rafts won't crack like the current concrete ones will and do. Driveways wouldn't crack. Bridges would be safer, tunnels would be safer and so on.

In many countries, only a small percentage of old tyres end up in landfill so why can't we be the same? We claim to be a green, clean country yet we dump over four million tyres per year. There is a huge range of products that can be made from old tyres.

The $26 million John Key wasted on the flag debacle could have been used to set up a plant to convert used tyres into a usable product. It's about time we stopped moaning and started doing.

A Bourne, Bethlehem (Abridged).