A RAMSBOTTOM waste company is getting to grips with a system to save wear and tear on its company vehicle tyres.

ISM Waste is benefiting from four tyres in one by utilising Michelin's Four Lives tyre package managed by their local ATS branch in Bury.

The company, based in Kenyon Street, operates a fleet of 18 commercial vehicles comprising 6 x 4 Volvo tractor units, skip loaders, tippers, hook-lifts and rear end loaders, fitted with a mixture of Michelin new and RemiX tyres.

John Allen, a director of ISM, explained: "No component suffers more than tyres in a waste disposal operation like ours. But the blend of new and RemiX tyres works well as we now get four lives from one tyre.

"Because the tractor units have to go on landfill sites, their tyres get the most hammering and we fit new Michelin XZE2 on the steer axles and XDE2 on the drive axles."

As the new tyre's tread pattern wears, ISM Waste regrooves the tyre in-house for a second life and then sends the casing back to Michelin to be remixed, giving it a third life. The regrooving process can then be repeated when necessary to give the tyre its fourth life.

Mr Allen added: "This flexibility allows us to use our stock of Michelin casings to suit whatever tyre requirements we currently have."

ISM Waste has been fitting Michelin tyres to its vehicles for more than ten years. The company operates from a purpose-built waste recycling facility where the waste is processed before being loaded on to two Boughton ejection trailers to be transported to a landfill site for recycling.

Each vehicle in the company's fleet covers between 25,000 and 30,000 kilometres a year, some of which is inevitably off-road.