Bridgestone and Michelin may constantly up each other when it comes to the on-road performance of their tires, but when it comes to caring for the environment, these two fiercely competitive tire makers will be cooperating.
The two companies have agreed to form a partnership to find ways to recycle carbon black, a key material in tires.
An estimated one billion tires around the world reach the end of their useful service life every year. Many of the technical challenges surrounding the use of recycled and recovered materials from end-of-life tires are understood, but barriers remain towards achieving material circularity at the scale necessary to realize a more sustainable mobility ecosystem.
Today, less than one percent of all carbon black material used globally in new tire production comes from recycled end-of-life tires due to a weak supply pipeline for the recovery and reuse of carbon black.
By recovering carbon black, there’s an opportunity to lessen the tire industry’s reliance on petrochemicals.
The partnership aims to replace a portion of the traditional ingredient with one that’s sustainable and circular without any performance tradeoffs. Additionally, using recovered carbon black in new tire production reduces CO2 emissions by up to 85 percent compared to virgin materials.
Because this partnership is for the common good, Michelin and Bridgestone won’t be closing the door on other tire brands. In fact, they seek to establish a coalition that includes other tire manufacturers, suppliers of carbon black, and even emerging technology startups as well.
Next year, the companies will release their findings on the technical requirements, characteristics, and proposed solutions to increase the recovery of carbon black in new tires.
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