Bridgestone Corporation and Michelin Group announced that the companies would deliver a shared perspective regarding material circularity and the ambition to increase the utilisation of recovered carbon black material in tyres.
As part of the joint initiative, Bridgestone and Michelin will lead the development of a position paper that will outline the tyre industry's role in achieving a circular economy. Later in 2022, the companies will release a white paper to outline the technical requirements, characteristics and proposed solutions to increase the utilisation of recovered carbon black in new tyres.
According to Bridgestone, an estimated one billion tyres worldwide reach the end of their useful service life every year. Many of the technical challenges surrounding the use of recycled and recovered materials from end-of-life tyres are understood, but barriers remain towards achieving material circularity at the scale necessary to realise a more sustainable mobility ecosystem. Today, less than 1% of all carbon black material used globally in new tyre production comes from recycled end-of-life tyres due to a weak supply pipeline for the recovery and reuse of carbon black, the company said.
Recovered carbon black presents the opportunity to reduce the tyre industry's reliance on petrochemicals by replacing a portion of traditional carbon black with a sustainable and circular alternative without introducing performance tradeoffs.
In addition, using recovered carbon black in new tyre production reduces CO2 emissions by up to 85% compared to virgin materials.
Collaboration with stakeholders across all aspects of the tyre and rubber industry value chain will be needed to deliver this goal. As such, Michelin and Bridgestone seek to establish a coalition of a diverse group of stakeholders, including tyre manufacturers, carbon black suppliers, pyrolysis partners and emerging technology startups to accelerate progress and increase the supply of recovered carbon black.
Jake Rønsholt, Vice President, Strategy and Transformation, Bridgestone Europe, Middle East, India and Africa, said, 'Increasing use of recovered carbon black in tyres is critical to achieving Bridgestone's vision for sustainable mobility. Together with Michelin and other stakeholders, we can generate critical momentum on this important initiative and advance our efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and manufacture products from fully renewable and sustainable materials.'
Sander Vermeulen, Vice President, End-of-life Rubber Products Recycling Business, Michelin, said, 'For years discussions have been ongoing about the different constraints and hurdles that were preventing the rubber industry to adopt recycled and or recovered raw materials in significant quantities. We felt it was the time to stop discussing and actively contribute to finding solutions that would enable the rubber industry as a whole to become more circular by increasing its ability to adopt recycled and or recovered materials from end-of-life tyres. I am delighted that we found a partner in Bridgestone that shares our vision, and together we invite stakeholders across the tire and rubber value chain to participate in the journey toward material circularity.'