Michelin recently revealed two tires made from sustainable materials. The first one is an option made for passenger vehicles that contains 45% sustainable materials while the second is a bus tire containing 58%.
The goal is to make tires that have 100% bio-sourced, recycled or renewable materials by 2050. The company seeks to achieve at least 40% by 2030. The progress is thanks to the incorporation of natural rubber, recycled carbon black, sunflower oil and bio-sourced resins, recycled steel, and silica from rice husks.
Michelin guarantees its customers and partners that there is no compromise made on performance and that there’s enough care taken not to impact the environment during each step of the design, manufacture, transport, recycling, and use of Michelin tires.
The company is highly knowledgeable on high technology materials. It has a team of 6,000 engineers, chemists, developers, and researchers. In 2021, it acquired 3,678 patents for the materials.
To accelerate the development of the necessary technologies, Michelin has partnered with several programs and entities in the recycling and transformation fields. These include Pyrowave (r-styrene), Carbios (r-PET), Enviro (rCB), IFPEN/Axens with the participation of the ADEME (French agency for ecological transition) (bio-butadiene), and Empreinte.