Hankook Tire shows furniture made from used tire-curing bladders at Design-Busan 2026

Hankook Tire & Technology said on the 9th that it is taking part in Design-Busan 2026, held in and around Dongnae-gu, Busan, through the 15th. According to biz.heraldcorp.com, the company is showing furniture and household items made from rubber left over from tire production biz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.comOpen source ↗. The festival opened on the 5th. Busan organizes it ahead of its 2028 World Design Capital year, under the theme "sea, people, environment".

The company's display covers tire materials, production by-products and products made from end-of-life tires. It is split between two sites: the Rubber Exhibition Hall at the DRB (Dongil Rubber Belt) Dongnae plant and the Design Theme Hall at Suan Art House, a converted idle building.

Exhibits and bladder upcycling

The Rubber Exhibition Hall shows tires made with sustainable raw materials, Ballfit, developed with the outdoor brand Helinox from recycled rubber, and a longboard made from scrap tires.

The focus is the bladder, a rubber bag placed inside a tire during manufacture to transfer heat and pressure and help the tire take its shape. Repeated use wears it out, and it must then be replaced biz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.comOpen source ↗. Hankook Tire grinds or processes spent bladders into furniture, brick-shaped blocks, household items and 3D-printed sculptures.

The Design Theme Hall presents the Bladder Upcycling Series, developed with DISCO Lab, the circular design lab at Seoul National University. A video of the manufacturing process is shown alongside.

Awards and production steps

The work continues under the company's ReMove project. Its first result, the upcycled longboard, received a Red Dot Design Award in Germany in 2024 and a Green Good Design Award last year. This year the Bladder Upcycling Series received four awards: Red Dot Design Award, A' Design Award (gold), Green Good Design Award and the US IDEA Design Award. The IDEA award, announced in September, was in the social impact design category.

The company also reports steps in production. In May its Jiaxing plant in China obtained ISCC PLUS certification, which verifies the sustainability of bio-based and recycled raw materials. It is the fourth certified site after Geumsan, Hungary and Daejeon biz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.comOpen source ↗. The iON GT, an EV-specific tire sold in the European replacement market, uses up to about 77% sustainable materials.

Hankook Tire said it plans to widen cooperation with design, materials and industry partners and keep developing technologies and products that reuse production by-products.