Discarded tires reborn as furniture: Hankook Tire unveils eco-friendly designs in Busan

Rubber left over from tire manufacturing is getting a second life as furniture and everyday goods. Hankook Tire & Technology is showcasing its resource-circulation technology and design work in Busan, turning waste rubber into new products.

The company announced Monday it is participating in Design-Busan 2026, a design festival running through Nov. 15 in Dongnae-gu, Busan.

The event was organized by the city of Busan ahead of its hosting of the 2028 World Design Capital. Built around the theme of "sea, people and environment," the festival uses industrial facilities and cultural spaces across the city for exhibitions and hands-on programs.

Hankook Tire focused its participation on demonstrating the potential of resource circulation through rubber — one of Busan's defining industrial materials. The display spans raw materials used in tire manufacturing, byproducts generated during production, and finished goods made from end-of-life tires.

The exhibition runs across two venues: a rubber exhibition hall set up at DRB Industrial's Dongnae factory, and a design theme hall at Suan Art House, a renovated vacant building.

The rubber exhibition hall presents a range of products under the theme "Time of Rubber: A Chronicle of Elastic Materials." Highlights include tires made with sustainable raw materials, the "Ballpit" — a product developed in collaboration with global outdoor brand Helinox — and a longboard made from waste tires.

The Ballpit, co-developed with Helinox, uses recycled rubber to show that the same material used in tire manufacturing can find new life in everyday items such as camping gear.

Also on display are products made from recycled "bladders" — the rubber pouches inserted inside tires during manufacturing to transfer heat and pressure and help the tire hold its shape. Bladders must be replaced after repeated use once they reach the end of their service life.

Hankook Tire ground and processed these spent bladders to create furniture, brick-shaped blocks, household goods and 3D-printed sculptures.

The design theme hall at Suan Art House focuses on furniture made from bladder material.

On display is the "Bladder Upcycling Series," co-developed by Hankook Tire and the Circular Design Lab — known as Disco Lab — at Seoul National University. A video documenting the production process runs alongside the exhibition, showing how waste rubber is transformed into new materials.

Upcycling goes beyond simple recycling by adding design and function to discarded materials, creating products with greater value than the original. Its defining feature is giving waste a new purpose rather than merely breaking it down into raw material.

Hankook Tire has been pursuing this approach through its "Re:Move" project.

The project's first output, an upcycled longboard made from end-of-life tires, won a main prize at Germany's Red Dot Design Award in 2024 and was selected for the Green Good Design Award last year.

This year, the Bladder Upcycling Series swept four international design awards: a main prize at the Red Dot Design Award, a gold prize at the A' Design Award, the Green Good Design Award, and a main prize at the US IDEA Design Award.

The IDEA Design Award, announced in September, recognized the series in the social impact design category, citing it as a case study in designing with manufacturing byproducts.

Hankook Tire's resource-circulation efforts extend beyond exhibition products into its actual tire production process.

In May, its Jiaxing factory in China obtained ISCC PLUS certification, an international standard verifying the sustainability of bio-based and recycled raw materials. The Jiaxing plant became the company's fourth certified production site, following factories in Geumsan, Hungary and Daejeon.

The company is also developing tires that incorporate eco-friendly materials. Its iON GT electric vehicle tire, launched in the European replacement market, uses up to about 77 percent sustainable materials.

Through this exhibition, Hankook Tire plans to deepen collaboration with partners in design, materials and industry, and to continue developing technologies and products that put manufacturing byproducts back to use.

Design-Busan 2026 opened Nov. 5 and runs through Nov. 15, with exhibitions and programs at major venues across the city, including Dongnae-gu, the Busan Port International Exhibition and Convention Center, and F1963.