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Pressed plastic bottles: will they soon provide a stop on the road?
Photo: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
The recycled plastic bottles are to be used in the tire carcass: The tire manufacturer Continental intends to produce tires from recycled PET bottles by 2022.
60 recycled PET bottles make enough polyester for a complete set of tires.
Previously conventionally produced polyester compounds could thus be completely replaced by sustainable polyester yarn, said the automotive supplier. This comes from the recycled PET plastic bottle. "As part of what is known as upcycling, a PET plastic bottle is turned into a high-performance PET material," said the Dax company from Hanover. It is unclear whether the change will also have an impact on the formation of microplastics. Car tires are already considered to be one of the most important sources for this.
It is about a process in which the shredded bottle material can be returned to the value cycle of the tire plastics without further chemical reaction steps.
"In our innovative recycling process, the fibers are spun from recycled PET without the material first having to be broken down into its components," said Continental Managing Director for Materials, Process Development and Industrialization, Andreas Topp.
He spoke of a »further important step towards cross-product circular economy«.
According to its own statements, Continental intends to only use sustainably produced materials by 2050 at the latest.
Natural rubber soon to be made from dandelions?
At this year's International Motor Show (IAA) in Munich, Continental intends to present its first tire with recycled polyester yarn from PET bottles, which is being developed together with the fiber and textile manufacturer OTIZ. The material should be just as safe and efficient as those made from the fibers used up to now. It is considered unbreakable, tough and stable even at high temperatures, making it particularly suitable for the manufacture of tires.
Classic plastics production - like many processes in industrial chemistry - devours large quantities of fossil hydrocarbons from petroleum mixtures. Tire manufacturers who primarily need deformable plastics in addition to rubber are therefore trying to convert parts of their production to recycled material. Michelin, for example, teamed up with its partner Enviro to recover soot and other substances before they find their way into new tires or conveyor belts. The French want to use recycled plastic from 2024.
At Continental there are also projects to use natural rubber that does not come from large plantations with the corresponding land and water consumption, but from dandelions.
It could eventually go into series production later.
The previous cultivation of rubber has been heavily criticized because of its ecological and social consequences.
The industry also plans to use better tolerated substances.
Goodyear is also active in biochemical processes and tire materials; the Americans, for example, researched sugar cane as a possible raw material.
Research into recycling is running in parallel.
"Previous laboratory and tire tests have shown that fibers made from secondary raw materials are just as efficient as the fibers previously used," says Hanover.
By 2050 at the latest, all tire materials should come from sustainable processes, with waste being “future production material”.
Similar circulation systems are planned for recycling carbon black in tires.
apr / dpa / AFP
