Bridgestone is taking steps toward a sustainable future for tires. The company recently announced its currently testing passenger car tires largely made from a wide range of recycled and renewable materials, and yes, that includes plants Bridgestone is growing that produce natural rubber. The global brand will be working with automakers throughout the year to test and further develop these eco-friendly tires.
Specifically, Bridgestone has 200 sets of these tires ready to go. Recycled items account for 37 percent of the materials used, with 38 percent being renewables. That's 75 percent total, and Bridgestone is working towards a goal of upping that content to 90 percent.
Recycled materials include rubber, steel, varying degrees of carbon black, and plastic bottles, which are used in conjunction with natural rubber harvested from the guayule desert shrub to create synthetic rubber. The company is growing the material at an agricultural facility in Arizona. Plant-based oils and bio-based Silica from rice husk ash are among other renewables involved in the manufacturing process.
The tires were designed and engineered at Bridgestone's tech center in Ohio and created at the company's plant in South Carolina. Once the 75-percent threshold is finalized, 90 percent will be the next benchmark on the way to a goal of 100 percent renewable/sustainable tires by 2050.
“As we progress in our transformation to a sustainable solutions company, we are making incredible progress in the use of recycled and renewable materials to bring sustainable tire technology from the drawing board to the driveway," said Paolo Ferrari, Bridgestone Americas president & CEO. "The production and deployment of a 75-percent recycled and renewable materials tire technology marks a significant milestone as we accelerate our progress toward using fully sustainable materials in our products by 2050."
Bridgestone isn't the only tire manufacturer looking to go green in the near future. In February, Continental announced a very similar plan to produce sustainable tires utilizing much of the same materials mentioned here, further stating that recycled items already accounted for 15 to 20 percent of current tires.
