Too good to throw away. A lot can be made out of old PET bottles. Soon they can also be used in tire production.
Tire manufacturer Michelin wants to use recycled PET bottles for tire production in the future. The recycled material replaces new PET plastic fibers, of which all tire manufacturers worldwide together require 800.000 tons annually. The amount of fibers required by Michelin alone is equivalent to around 3 billion PET bottles.
A new process from Michelin technology partner Carbio breaks down the PET contained in plastics through enzymatic recycling. The fibers can then be re-polymerized. In this way, all types of PET waste can be recycled indefinitely. The technical fibers obtained in this way also meet the quality standards required for tire production.
Michelin intends to use 2030 percent sustainable materials from renewable or recycled sources by 40 and 2050 percent by 100.