RecycleBill's Recycled Chair Challenge

Or, Raising The Recycling Bar

Over at Earth911 they're challenging people to make cardboard chairs. It's a great idea but RecycleBill thinks we can do better. And I'm willing to put up $500.oo of real US Dollars to the person who proves me right.

Using cardboard in this manner is great except... Well, except for the following:
1. Cardboard is already very easy to recycle into new cardboard and
2. Depending on what kind of glue you use you might render the cardboard unable to be recycled and sentence your handmade chair to a landfill after the novelty wears off or you forget and leave it outside in the rain. (Using the glue recommended in their video would be okay.)

Instead of cardboard why not use old automobile and truck tires instead? That right, instead of making a chair from cardboard let RecycleBill see you make it from old tires.

While some recycling of worn out auto and truck tires is taking place, the vast majority of tires are still ending up in landfills or are being stockpiled in the hopes that they will someday be recycled. Old tires make great asphalt but most paving companies won't use old tires because that would force them to retire their new asphalt grinding machines for which they are charging hundreds upon hundreds of Tax Dollars per hour. Wouldn't you rather do something that has the potential of actually changing the world for the better and not just something that makes you feel better? Wouldn't changing the world for the better make you feel better?

RecycleBill has already figured out how to do it, let's see if you can figure it out while meeting the following guidelines:
1. The tire chair must be made of at least 90% old tires.
2. The tire chair must also be able to be recycled, ie, reprocessed in the manners in which tires are currently recycled.
3. The chair must be fully functional and durable inside the house and outside in the yard.
4. The chair must not weigh over 100 pounds.
5. All entries must be from the Lower 48 US states to keep shipping costs within reach.
6. You've got until March 30, 2009 to send .jpg photo files of your finished tire chair to RecycleBill@gmail.com with the words, "Tire Chair" in the subject line of your e-mail.

RecycleBill will then look through the photos, post them to the RecycleBlog and with the help of readers, pick out what he hopes will be the winning chair. But just to make sure I'm not being sent photoshopped photos I'm going to ask that you ship me what I hope is the winning tire chair for inspection. And if I like your chair I'll reimburse the shipping, pay return shipping and pay the $500.oo prize fee. If I don't like your chair you loose and I go on to my second favorite and ask him or her to ship me their tire chair. And so on...

And if you loose, don't expect me to pay the freight. In other words, don't do crappy work in the hope that you'll get a quick $500 bucks. I'm not as concerned with appearance as I am with function. And I weigh 200 pounds so don't build some spindly piece of crap. If I set in your chair and bust my ass you loose. The prize money isn't much but you can probably build it in a weekend and it might be the start of a new business for you.

Here's a tip: A good skillsaw with a metal safety guard and a carbide blade will eat through a steel belted radial in no time. Just make sure your saw has a metal safety guard, set your saw depth to just barely cut through the tires and be sure to wear safety glasses.

More green business start-up ideas...