Michelin Sets Goals to Use 80% Sustainable Materials in Tires, Recycle All Tires by 2048

At the Movin' On sustainable mobility conference, Michelin announced two new goals: to use 80 percent sustainable materials in the manufacture of its tires and to invest in technology to make its tires 100 percent recyclable by 2048.

Currently, the company’s tires are made from 28 percent sustainable materials, and to make the switch to 80 percent sustainable materials and 100 percent recyclable tires in an effective and efficient way, Michelin will be leveraging partnerships and making acquisitions.

Meeting these goals will result in a number of savings that are equivalent to 33 million barrels of oil saved per year, one month’s total energy consumption of France and 65 billion kilometers driven by an average sedan per year.

Trucking Info has more information:

Michelin has announced a bold twin goal of using 80% sustainable materials in the manufacture of its tires and investing in technology to enable the 100% recycling of its tires by the year 2048. The two corporate “ambitions” were presented at a standing room only press conference on May 30 at the France-based global tire maker’s second annual Movin’ On sustainable mobility conference.

The initiatives were detailed by Cyrille Roget, group technical and scientific communication director, who pointed out that Michelin will not tackle this effort on its own. “This is not something we can achieve alone,” he said. “We will need a lot of cooperation.”

To that end, Roget said the tire maker will leverage partnerships and make acquisitions. As Michelin sees it, the road ahead to its “ambitious sustainable material target” will be paved by research programs into bio-sourced materials,  such as Biobutterfly, and working with the tire maker’s “high-level partners, and the advanced technologies and materials that are being developed in these partnerships.” The Biobutterfly program was launched in 2012 with Axens and IFP Energies Nouvelles to create synthetic elastomers from biomass such as wood, straw or beet.

Read the full story here.