Tires made with recycled PET arrive: 10 bottles are enough for one rubber

Transforming plastic bottles into tires? The German company Continental is really doing it and has already launched the innovative tires on the market. 40 bottles are needed to produce a set of tires.

Tires made with recycled PET arrive: 10 bottles are enough for one rubber

@Continental



When properly disposed of and recycled, the plastic bottles they can be a valuable resource and even turn into tires. This is not a utopian project, but an idea that has become reality. In fact, there are already those who have already started producing them for the first time. We are talking about the German company Continental, one of the top five global suppliers in the automotive sector.

The company reported that tires made from polyester yarn made from plastic bottles in PET recycled - thanks to an innovative technology - are already available on the market. This is a decidedly eco-friendly alternative, as most rubbers are made with chemical compounds derived from petroleum.

Efficient and environmentally friendly tires

These special car tires, equipped with ContiRe.Tex technology, carry the “Contains Recycled Material” logo on the side and are currently only produced in the Continental plant in Lousado, Portugal.



PET polyester yarn has long been used in the assembly of tires for light trucks and passenger cars. Textile ropes absorb the forces of the tire's internal pressure and remain dimensionally stable even under high loads and temperatures. - explains Continental - To make tires even more energy efficient and environmentally friendly in production, use and recyclability, Continental is looking for alternative materials to use.

One set of car tires contains polyester made from around 40 recycled PET bottles. Initially, the new material will be used for the PremiumContact 6 and EcoContact 6 summer tires and Continental's AllSeasonContact tire, but its use is expected to be extended thereafter.

Tires made with recycled PET arrive: 10 bottles are enough for one rubber

@Continental

Where do used plastic bottles come from

But where does the plastic used for the production of tires come from? As clarified by the German company, the used bottles come exclusively from regions without a closed-loop recycling system and are sorted and mechanically cleaned, after removing the caps. Following mechanical shredding, PET is transformed into granulated polyester then into yarn.

We only use high-performance materials in our premium tires. From now on, these will include polyester yarn made from PET bottles and made with a particularly efficient recycling process. We brought our innovative ContiRe.Tex technology to the production stage in just eight months. I am proud of the whole team for this extraordinary result - says Ferdinand Hoyos, Continental's business replacement manager in Europe, the Middle East and Africa - We are constantly expanding the share of renewable and recycled materials in our tires. By 2050 at the latest, we aim to use only sustainable materials in our production.


The ways in which plastic bottles can be converted are practically infinite (or almost). Some time ago we told you about the young Indian entrepreneur who reuses plastic bags and bottles to make comfortable sneakers, but the examples would really be myriad. Long live the circular economy!


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Source: Continental

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