Continental is stepping up its push for sustainable tire production by putting even more focus on the utilization of renewable and recycled materials in its products. The company aims to increase the share of renewable and recycled materials in its tires from 26 percent in 2024 to over 40 percent by 2030, with no compromise on performance or safety.
Central to this strategy is the greater use of alternative fillers like silica and carbon black, which, along with rubber, account for a large proportion of tire raw materials. Silica enhances traction and reduces rolling resistance, whereas carbon black enhances rubber durability and strength.
Instead of relying solely on traditional quartz sand, Continental now also manufactures silica from rice husk ashes—a farming residual of crops like risotto rice. The process, created with partners like Solvay in Italy, converts waste into high-quality silica using less energy, contributing to a circular economy and lower emissions. Silica has made tires safer already by significantly shorter braking distances and better fuel efficiency.
Continental’s sustainability drive also includes making more sustainable carbon black. Continental derives carbon black from three innovative pathways: it manufactures it from bio-based feedstocks such as tall oil (a by-product of the paper industry), recycles pyrolysis oil from end-of-life tires, or recovers carbon black directly through advanced pyrolysis. These methods reduce the dependency on crude oil without sacrificing the high levels of tire quality.
In the case of carbon black, Continental applies a mass balance principle to assign a share of bio-based or recycled feedstock to its end products, enabling this shift without having to redesign current manufacturing systems.
Continental has also partnered with Pyrum Innovations, a specialist thermolysis company, to recover usable carbon black from end-of-life tires to further strengthen its recycling operations. The recovered carbon black has so far been used in the production of industrial tires, and Continental is working to develop its use in passenger and commercial tire compounds.
Continental Tires‘ Director of Sustainability, Jorge Almeida, emphasized that innovation and sustainability are the flip sides of the same coin for the company. He highlighted that the use of silica from rice husk ashes and the development of alternatives to carbon black are essential to more sustainable tire production—without sacrificing strict performance and safety standards.
As Continental pushes these eco-friendly technologies, it aims to further its leadership in sustainable mobility and set new benchmarks for more sustainable tire manufacturing worldwide.