New tires for climate protection

New tires for climate protection

By now, every tire expert probably already knows the story of the eco-tire made from dandelions. A development from Continental that is perhaps a bit of a PR stunt, but ultimately shows what the tire industry is up to: They want to be greener, more sustainable and even climate-neutral in the final stage. This won't happen overnight, but the big manufacturers almost agree that it can happen in 2050. But this already requires more than PR stunts and great concept tires at trade fairs. The good news: The tire industry is actually serious.

Continental has started production of the UltraContact NXT, its most sustainable production tire to date, at its factory in Lousado, Portugal. With up to 65 percent renewable, recycled and mass balance certified materials, the new summer tire from Continental combines a high proportion of sustainable materials with - according to the manufacturer - maximum safety and performance. The promise is underpinned by top marks in the EU tire label in the areas of rolling resistance, wet braking and external noise. The particularly sustainable tire consists of up to 32 percent renewable raw materials. These include resins obtained from waste materials from the paper and wood industries and bio-based silica from the ash of rice husks, an agricultural waste product. The proportion of recycled material in the UltraContact NXT is up to five percent. This includes recycled rubber that comes from mechanically processed old tires. In addition, recycled steel is used. The “ContiRe.Tex technology” was also adopted: Continental uses this to produce high-performance polyester fibers to reinforce the tire casing by recycling PET bottles that otherwise often end up in incineration plants or landfills. Depending on the tire size, between nine and fifteen PET bottles are reused per tire. The PET bottles used are exclusively sourced from regions where there is no closed recycling cycle. Up to 28 percent consists of ISCC Plus mass balance certified materials. What is that? For example, sustainable synthetic rubber and carbon black made from sustainable organic raw materials. By 2030, Continental aims to have more than 40 percent of renewable and recycled materials in its tires. Smart: A separate logo on the tire wall should show that the tire also comes from recycled material.

But Conti is not the only manufacturer that is active in this direction. The Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli has developed a logo that shows on the tire wall that at least 50 percent bio-based and recycled materials are used in the tire. The logo even celebrates its premiere on a finished product, the Pirelli P Zero E. When it is launched on the market, this tire contains more than 55 percent of its materials from bio-based and recycled materials across the entire product range. By 2030, the company has stipulated that selected product lines should contain at least 60 percent bio-based, 12 percent recycled and less than 30 percent fossil ingredients. Like all manufacturers, Pirelli had to find a way to design its UHP tire so that, despite its high ecological content, it delivers the same performance as less sustainable rubber. According to the manufacturer, this was completely successful.

There is hardly a manufacturer who has not shown an eco-tire in recent years, even if they were often just concept tires that served as feasibility studies. The Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone is currently going one step further. Its factory in Chakan in Pune, India, was extensively inspected from May to June 2023 and certified as climate-neutral for 2022 according to the international standard PAS 2060. It is the manufacturer's first work to overcome this hurdle. The prime example shows what steps are actually needed to master one's own decarbonization. The Bridgestone branch produces more than four million tires every year. Thanks to well-thought-out measures, the factory was able to reduce its CO2 footprint by 94 percent over the course of the year, for example with solar systems and climate-neutral biomass-based heating systems that use CO2-neutral briquettes made from agricultural waste. The remaining CO2 emissions of 2,975 tonnes will be offset using environmental certificates. Bridgestone also wants to be completely climate-neutral globally by 2050, and by 2030 the ecological footprint should be reduced by 50 percent compared to 2011.

Every eco-trend has its price. Customers who want to use green tires today usually pay more for them than for standard tires. The industry has not disclosed much about the extent to which current eco-technologies can be applied to tens of millions of new tires worldwide. Concepts that work on a small scale must first prove that they can be scaled up in an economically sound manner.