Michelin is set to receive its first shipment of recycled styrene from Canadian recycling startup Pyrowave. The 3-ton shipment left Montreal for an undisclosed Michelin factory in France.
The recycled material is made from polystyrene waste and will be used to make eco-friendly Michelin tires. Just 4 days ago, the recycled styrene monomer from Pyrowave passed quality tests done by the tire manufacturer. It achieved 99.8 percent purity.
It can now be incorporated into elastomer materials used in the production process. The tires will also include “fully traceable and segregated recycled styrene” for the first time. This means that the recycled material will make part of the product and will not be credit-based content.
The 3-ton shipment is enough to make more than 1,000 passenger car tires. Thanks to Pyrowave, Michelin will now be able to make batches of industrial styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR).
The tires can now be made using 100% recycled material without any degradation or dilution. Pyrowave has also come up with a microwave solution to turn waste polystyrene plastics into styrene monomers (original form).
The recovered material is identical to the original and reduces carbon footprint by 45 percent. The collaboration between these two companies has been going on since 2020. They decided to roll out the technology commercially into the global market in November 2020.