Sign Up to the Leading Journal in the Tyre Recycling Industry
Tyre and Rubber Recycling provides the global tyre recycling sector with a regular free e-newsletter service. At least 50 newsletters are produced each year detailing all the latest news and features from our pages. To make sure you don’t miss out on the latest news stories from around the world please submit your details via the form below, and we’ll happily add you to our circulation list.
It would not be an overnight withdrawal as it was in Scotland, but after due process and a transition period, the T8 will be removed. It just awaits Parliamentary time to change the law.
Essentially, existing T8 holders will be able to complete their Exemption, but if they wish to continue operations, they will be required to apply for a Permit and meet the Permit conditions or close.
The new Permit will come with a charge. Lieberman says that this will enable the EA to engage more staff for monitoring and enforcement.
There is more, and there will be changes for carriers, brokers and dealers, who will all also need a licence.
Implementation is anticipated in 2024. However, if there is a delay and a change of Government at the next General Election, both Government and Opposition parties have agreed to enshrine these changes in law.
We will have a more detailed rundown of the changes soon.
Continental is meeting one of the holy grails for tyre recyclers to get tyre-derived materials back into tyres
There is anecdotal evidence of tyre manufacturers utilising tyre derived materials but the question of what and how much is used often goes unanswered.
Now, Continentalhas talked about its solid tyres using recovered carbon black.
At the company’s plant in Korbach, Hessen, recovered industrial carbon black (rCB) is being added to newly produced Super Elastic solid tyres, thus reducing the use of fossil materials and cutting CO2 emissions.
Continental’s SC20+ uses Pyrum rcb
Solid tyres such as Continental’s SC20+ already contain around 60 per cent renewable and recycled materials thanks to their high natural rubber content. By 2050 at the latest, Continental aims to use 100 per cent sustainable materials in its tyre products.
The recovered carbon black is supplied by Pyrum Innovations, one of Continental’s partner companies. Pyrum breaks down end-of-life tyres using a proprietary pyrolysis process. This allows valuable raw materials contained in end-of-life tyres to be extracted and recycled. Solid tyres have a high load capacity and are extremely stable, puncture-proof, maintenance-free and highly economical. They are mainly used in material handling by forklift trucks, airport vehicles, heavy transport vehicles, sideloaders, platform trucks and other industrial vehicles.
Industrial carbon black is an important resource used as a filler in tyre production and in the manufacture of other industrial rubber products. The targeted use of carbon black in rubber compounds increases the stability, strength and durability of tyres.
“In Pyrum, we have found a partner that has developed a particularly efficient pyrolysis process. Together, we want to further develop the process for the pyrolysis of end-of-life tires,” explains Matthias Haufe, Head of Material Development and Industrialisation at Continental Tires. In the future, the recovered carbon black will also be used in other Continentalcompounds. Jointly with Pyrum, the tyre manufacturer is currently working on further optimising and expanding the recycling of end-of-life tyres using pyrolysis.
The use of recovered carbon black from end-of-life tyres is an important step toward more circular business practices in Continental’s tyre production. The company is working tirelessly to advance innovative technologies and sustainable products and services throughout its entire value chain, from sourcing sustainable materials to recycling end-of-life tyres. By 2050 at the latest, Continental aims to achieve 100 per cent carbon-neutrality along its entire value chain.
It is the second time that the recovered carbon black and oil from the facility in Åsensbruk has received renewed certification in accordance with ISCC,International Sustainability & Carbon Certification. The first certification was obtained in September 2021 and meant that Enviro became the first in the world to obtain an ISCC certification for recovered carbon black.
A certification in accordance with ISCC represents an objective and standardised calculation of the emissions of climate-affecting carbon dioxide. According to the ISCC certification, using recovered carbon black from Åsensbruk, compared to using an equivalent amount of fossil carbon black, results in a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 93 per cent. The standardised calculation gives Enviro’scustomers the opportunity to objectively assess the environmental benefit of using Enviro’s recycled raw materials, which in turn gives a higher commercial value to the raw materials.
The certification of the oil means, as the company previously announced, that in accordance with the EU’s mass balance perspective via the ISCC certification, it can be commercialised by fuel producers as 100% renewable.
TNU has modified its tyre management fees in order to update its relation to the current realities in the agricultural sector
The current categorisation of F1 is adjusted to F1A and F1B and the management costs of the G1 and G3 categories have been updated.
TNU modulates its rates based on different tyre categories, and the costs necessary so that the provision of the end-of-use tyre management service maintains at all times an adequate cost-efficiency relationship in economic, social and environmental terms.
For these purposes, the TNU Board of Directors has considered it appropriate and necessary to modify the F1 categorisation, Agricultural Weight < 50 kg, because the weight range covered in the previous categorisation was too wide and produced a certain disproportionality in the application. of the rate, so the decision has been made to subdivide this category into two:
F1A.- Agricultural with Weight ≤ 25 kg
F1B.- Agricultural with Weight > 25 and < 50 kg
This subdivision continues to respect the criteria approved and published by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERD), as well as the categories established in the Producer Registry and provides greater equity in the financial contribution to the system
As a consequence of the above, the new pricing is detailed below and will apply from September 1, 2023:
It is also remembered that the tyres subject to declaration to the system are:
1. New tyres manufactured in Spain and new tyres from intra-Community acquisition or imports from third countries.
2. Second-hand tyres from intra-Community acquisition or imports from third countries.
3. Tyres prepared for reuse in authorised treatment centres of vehicles at the end of their useful life and marketed as second-hand tyres,
4. Retreaded tyres on imported casings, manufactured in Spain, and retreaded tyres from intra-Community acquisition or imports from third countries.
Wastefront has been granted an environmental permit for its flagship site at the Port of Sunderland
The decision was made on Thursday 31 August 2023 by the Environment Agencyand clears the way for the next stage in the process, as Wastefront works toward having the site fully operational by 2026.
Wastefront CEO Vianney Vales
Commenting on the news, Wastefront CEO Vianney Valessaid; “Wastefront’swork is timely and urgent; our Blueprint will solve the disposal of an estimated 31 million metric tonnes of End-of-Life-Tyres annually, which is currently a concerningly dense source of both emissions and waste. Our Blueprint will reduce emissions and bring circularity to heavy industry, at a scale not seen before.
“We are therefore delighted to have been granted an environmental permit for our Sunderland site – it’s a vital step on the journey to having the site fully operational by 2026. The entire team can now focus on starting construction and investing further in Sunderland.
“We reflect on this key milestone, and thank those who have helped us reach this stage, and are excited for what comes next.”
This permitting opens the way for Wastefront to take this project to the next level.
Matthew Hunt, Director at Port of Sunderland, added; “We are delighted that Wastefront has received an environmental permit for its world-first tyre recycling plant here at Port of Sunderland.
“Representing an investment of over £100 million, once completed, the facility will represent a critical piece of UK infrastructure, creating highly skilled jobs for local people at the Port and significantly consolidating further our position as an investment location of choice for the ever-growing circular economy.”
The news closely follows the announcement of a strategic partnership with leading global energy storage infrastructure provider VTTI, for investment of up to $43mn (which will go toward the first phase of the Sunderland plant’s development) and an agreement to reach a final investment decision for eight global sites within a five-year period. It is the first time the Wastefront Blueprint has been licensed for global deployment.
Wastefront’spartnership with VTTI – one of the world’s largest independent energy storage infrastructure providers, backed by leading energy and infrastructure players Vitol, IFM Investors andADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) – is one of several key Wastefront partnerships, such as with energy and commodities company Vitol for a 10-year offtake agreement for pyrolysis oil and certain non-liquid products.
French engineering and technology company Technip Energies is Wastefront’s partner for the Front End Engineering Design and the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management of the Sunderland plant buildout. Wastefront has also signed an agreement with one of Europe’s largest distributors of products for the rubber industry, Weber & Schaer, for their recovered carbon black.
There are, despite evidence to the contrary, rules on the duty of care on the export of waste tyres from the UK, and often rules about the import of waste tyres in destination countries
The starting point is that no tyres (or waste) from the UK should be exported to another country unless the final recipient of that waste is able to return an Annex VIIcertificate stating that the final destination of that waste complied with UK regulations. The theory is that if no Annex VII is received the export should not have taken place. Any further exports to that destination would then clearly be a breach of the export rules. In fact, The Basel Convention says that the conditions for the Annex VII must be in place before any export takes place.
It might also be argued that if the UK exports goods to a country in contravention of the destination country’s regulations, then those exports are by definition, illegal.
Yet, the UK exports the majority of its tyres in contravention of the rules of the destination nation and with very few, if any Annex VII certificates being returned.
The reality of the Annex VII is that there is nobody representing the UK at the receiving nation to complete these forms and verify them, so nobody bothers completing them – and if they did, without checking and validating they would be worthless.
That notwithstanding, it raises questions about the UK’s Defra (Department for the Environment Farming and Agriculture) is truly concerned about our waste exports.
Monitoring and managing tyre exports from the UK would be a relatively simple task. Tyres are a mono-sector, they have limited sources, and their recovery can, largely be monitored and managed. In theory, the UK should know exactly how many tyres it manufactures, import, sell, recover, recycle, and export. All it really needs is some small changes to legislation and better enforcement and control.
UK Export records are not what we might wish
From past experience though, recording and checking of imports and exports are not what the public might expect. At one point, HMRCrecorded the UK as exporting more retreaded tyres than it manufactured and imported put together. It would be a safe presumption that used tyres were, even then, being exported as retreaded tyres to get around waste tyre import issues in destination markets.
COP were advised that tyres were one of the five priority waste streams. However, Peter Taylor at the Tyre Recovery Association has been told by the Environment Agency that “there were more priority issues than tyres”, Defra has instructed the EA to focus on plastics first. The government says one thing to the world at COP but tells the industry a different story.
One tyre collector, Tedge Sagoo, who has plans to develop UK-based tyre processing operations and is facing obstruction by a UK planning authority in an area blighted by tyre issues, sent Tyre and Rubber Recycling a video, which he says was taken at an Indian tyre yard that was receiving baled tyres from the UK.
The video shows tyres being manually cut in India, to remove the sidewalls. Initially, Indian EPR rules had required three cuts to the bead of the tyre to prevent them from being re-used. However, Indian recyclers campaigned for a derogation of that rule, and gaining this concession contributed to a surge in the import of baled tyres.
Video purporting to be European and UK tyres being cut in India
Sagoo explained, “Uncut tyres from bales are being sold on in India and used on the roads. They are not suitable on a number of levels. Firstly, they are unfit for use on UK roads, so should be unfit for use in India, secondly, Indian asphalt is not the same as European asphalt and the tyres made for use in India are not the same as European tyres, so the used European tyres are not suitable for use on Indian roads.”
£1000 for a life?
Sagoo also spoke of tyres going to unsafe pyrolysis units; “We don’t see it in the news here, but there are accidents at these plants, explosions, gas releases and such, and people die as a result. Their families get paid around £1000, That is the price of a life in India. If we continue to supply these operations, then we are complicit in those deaths.”
It is not just India, though India is the major destination, followed by Pakistan, which has similar challenges. However, anyone who is familiar with tyre recycling in the UK, or Germany, will be familiar with the practice of an agent from some African state, going through the tyre compound collecting tyres for export, and doubling them tripling them, or baling them for export to some African state. Tyre and Rubber Recycling has reported in the past about illegal tyre imports to Swaziland, Nigeria, Ghana, and the Congo.
These tyres end up in street markets and are sold as “new” to the impoverished people of those destinations. Our governments allow this to continue. They make no efforts to prevent these illegal exports – remember, if it is illegal to import, it is by definition, illegal to export.
A moral question
There is a moral question here. We know that the UK imports large volumes of part-worn tyres from Germany and the Netherlands, some truck for retreading, but also large volumes of car tyres for sale as “part worn”. The UK is then, allowing tyres unfit for use on UK roads to be exported to other nations where they end up on vehicles. There is a clear statement in that process that a German/ Dutch life is worth more than a British life, and a British life is worth more than an African life. That is morally wrong. If a tyre is not safe on the UK roads, it cannot be safe on any road.
It should be stated that the UK is the only country in Europe with legal standards for part-worn tyres, but it would be difficult to find anyone selling part-worn tyres who is compliant.
The Indian government is aware of the challenge of tyre imports, and the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association remains adamant that India needs to clean up its own tyre waste before importing waste tyres. The Central Pollution Control Board is aware of the issues. The National Green Tribunal constantly lobbies against illegal imports, but the recycling sector is, in India, a wealthy and powerful lobby that insists that imported tyres are needed to support their sector.
Nine Corporation’s Chetan Joshiargues that if there were large tyre dumps in India needing recycled, why would the recyclers need to import waste tyres? It is a fair question.
One that another Indian recycler who requested anonymity responded to; “It is logistics. It is getting tyres from their place of arising in some remoter areas, to the locations of the recycling plants. The logistics cost in India, of collecting, storing, shipping etc., is greater than the cost to import from the UK in many cases.” Which ignores any carbon footprint concerns.
Failure at both ends of the government chain
So, we have two governments whose own regulations say that waste tyres are subject to export/ import regulations, and at both ends of the chain, those rules are being ignored or abused.
It is worth noting that Chetan Joshi has established a tyre shredding plant in Brisbane, Australia to ensure continued feedstock in the face of the Australian ban on whole tyre ELT exports.
Does it matter? Well, in the UK (and Germany), it matters significantly. The volume of exports is so immense that it is undermining the development of recycling in the domestic markets. Cheap, virtually uncontrolled collection and export undermines legitimate collection and recycling. Legitimate, permitted businesses have higher operational costs than someone operating with a T8, even more so illegal operators with no T8, who just fill containers and ship the tyres out. That drives legitimate recyclers who want to create higher-value products to chase the lowest common denominator and they join the export drive, undermining their own business plans. Dial in the current higher energy costs and capital expenditure for a processing plant, place that against a shortage of feedstock created by exports, and some recyclers cannot meet the demands of domestic contracts. One processor told Tyre and Rubber Recycling that he could not acquire enough granulate in the UK to meet a sports field contract – people were not generating the granulate because of the cost and the lack of suitable feedstock. Two others reported that they had lost a tyre-derived fuel contract because they could not secure the 50,000 ton feedstock required for the contract at a viable price due to the export agencies offering low-level operators a quick turnaround for cash in the bank.
In a letter to Defra, from the Tyre Recovery Association, the Association wanted to make it clear to the Secretary of State for the Environment that the Environment Agency had been advised of the abuse of ELT exports, yet the Agency had washed its hands of responsibility, quoting; “… we do not have the powers to prohibit the movement of whole tyres to India. The control of tyres to India is implemented by the UK retained regulations concerning the export for recovery of Green listed wastes to Non-OECD countries. Any amendments to controls on waste exports would be subject to formal consultation requirements and require a legislative change, which is the responsibility of Defra.”
The Tyre Recovery Association‘s Peter Taylor is renowned as a diplomat and one who is very careful with his words. So, this strongly worded letter to the Secretary of State underlines the seriousness of the issue.
150,000 tons of spare shredding capacity in the UK
The TRA advises that the top ten TRA members have around 150,000 tons of shredding capacity sitting idle and calls for a complete ban on the export of baled whole tyres.
When it boils down to it, the Environment Agency has been taking “duty of care” actions against recyclers and tyre companies, whilst at the same time Defra, the government’s own ministry, and its agency, the Environment Agency, and by implication, HMRC have clearly been negligent in their own Duty of Care. They have continued to allow ELT to be exported to undetermined end uses, sometimes in markets where their import either as whole tyres, or as waste tyres is contrary to the rules of the destination market.
As is so often the case, if the existing rules were enforced, both here and in the destination markets, the challenge of cheap ELT exports undermining domestic industries, here and abroad could be addressed. However, our government in the UK (and Germany) appears not to care so long as the waste is not piled up on our own doorstep. Our governments are guilty of an immoral lack of duty of care. They are complicit in waste crime by not acting as they should.
Henry Hodge, managing director at Black Ram Recycling has a solution; “If the government were to use the capacities set out in the Basel Convention, which it is a signatory to, then it could address the issue of abuse of ELT exports. By insisting that all tyre exports were shredded that would mean that the receiving operations would have to have the technology and the ability to handle that shredded material.” That single act would ensure that all operators in the UK would have to have permitted sites in order to make the process of recycling viable. It would boost British business and create jobs in the UK.
Poland’s Contec is moving quickly towards becoming a key player in the tyre pyrolysis sector. 2023 has seen the company receive 15 million euros of investment, enabling the company to work towards its upscaling goals
However, CEO Krzysztof Wróblewski has a longer-term view of where Contec is heading and in a third interview with Wróblewski, he outlined the latest developments at Contec and plans for the future.
The first stage in the development of Contec is the expansion of its plants across Europe. Wróblewski says; “The most important message is that we have been successful with fundraising. The 15 million euros funding that we have just completed will allow us to expand the Szczecin plant. The plant is already operational. We have two lines functioning well, and we want to add another two lines.
“The second step is to find the right partner to help us scout for new plots for further expansion. We already have an agreement with one of the best providers of this service in Europe, we just need to sign the deal. We will be looking for the best plots, and we will be scouting different regions. We will be looking at Southern and Eastern Europe, but also in other markets.
“We want to do this in a strategic and structured way, assessing the criteria that are important to us, considering all the regions and sites with the same criteria to find the best place for us to grow.”
Contec’s recovered carbon black is a high quality. high value end product
One of the issues with tyre recycling is always the transportation of the raw materials. Shipping tyres is inefficient, the bulk of the space taken in a truck carrying tyres is just air unless the tyres are baled. However, the more effort put into the feedstock, the greater the cost. So, Contec is seeking to locate new plants in areas close to tyre arisings. This is more likely to be in countries or regions with currently poorer recovery rates, often in Eastern Europe.
“The feedstock location is one of the most important criteria. It is not easy to transport huge quantities of tyres. So, we are looking for locations where there are large volumes of tyres with no established chemical or mechanical recycling. We will be looking for markets where they have not yet solved all the issues of tyre recycling, and there is an opportunity to help in addressing the issue of end-of-life tyres.”
Wróblewski continues; “The second criterion is the access to a workforce. Everyone is facing challenges in finding the right employees for the sector, so we need to identify markets where we can access qualified personnel and all the auxiliary companies that need to be there to support our operation. When we build a plant, we need to be sure that it will be operated properly.”
In some ways, these two points are basic steps, but Wreblówski then talks about the third criterion, and here the context gets a little complicated as it involves legislation. “The next question is how we meet the legislation around recycling and its harmonisation in the EU. Unfortunately, in different countries, we have different criteria and different rules around end-of-waste. It is extremely important that we can achieve an end-of-waste status for our output. We have gained this in Poland where we have a product, and we want to have the same in all our plants. There seems to be no point in creating an output that is still considered a waste. It is an especially important criteria for us that we can produce an end product that is not labelled as waste.”
CM Shreders prep the feedstock
It is clear that recovered carbon black is easy to transport, but if that transport requires additional licences, paperwork, and costs, that then detracts from the viability of the project.
Wróblewski adds; “We are not the experts in tracing sites and dealing with planning and licences, which is why we have decided to take the strategic approach of using a specialist in that area.”
Hand in hand with planned growth will always be a need for research and development. Tyre and Rubber Recycling asked Wrobleski where Contec was heading with future R&D projects.
“Contec has a very broad view on R&D,” said Wróblewski. “We have over 30 R&D projects through to 2027. These have different levels of complexity and are at various levels of advancement. I would say that these projects are in diverse groups – in application R&D mostly focused on rcb in rubber and other applications. So, we will develop our expertise in different applications, even in the tyre industry, the application in the sidewall will differ from the application in the tread, for example, but also in other non-rubber uses.
“The second part of our R&D is in product development itself. Here we want to make what we produce better in the case of certain applications, I can’t give details yet, but it could bring the value of the rcb to a higher level by a considerable amount due to the specific characteristics that we can achieve with our rcb in certain applications.
“Because we are technology developers, some part of our R&D will be in developing the technology for different feedstocks such as plastics or biomass, or other feedstocks that can be chemically treated where our technology can be adapted. This is another area where our R&D can be focussed.
“These are the three pillars of our internal R&D, but we also have external R&D with partners. One in particular is our joint development with the Swiss company TRS spa. They water jet the tread of the tyres, but they are looking for solutions for the sidewalls and the casings. We are conducting a joint R&D project with TRS. They are experts in compounding, and we are taking their sidewalls and looking at solutions based on treating just the sidewalls. This will bring certain qualities to the rcb. This will bring specific qualities as the rcb from the sidewalls will be a lot lower in ash content. This will create a new grade of rcb made from just the sidewall. This should find specific applications as it will be more consistent in quality. We are in the process of developing that, gathering the sidewalls and when we produce this rcb, it will be milled and pelletised in our system and sent back to TRS, who will then test it for its in-rubber performance.
Siemens joins the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance as a technology partner
Along the value and process chain in tyre production, each partner of the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance contributes their individual, innovative, technical and technological know-how. As an integrated solution provider for the tire industry, Zeppelin Systems combines these technological, technical and innovative competencies with high-quality and proven plant engineering solutions. The aim of the project is to bring together the best of recycling technologies in a manner that creates possibilities for the tyre industry to utilise recycled tyre materials in new tyres
Partners in the project include Regom (France), RubberJet and Vertech (Italy), Recykl (Poland),Entex (Germany) ReOil (Poland) RCB Nano Technologies. (Germany), and Evonik (Germany).
The latest partner in the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance is Siemens AG, experts in technology controls. The need to cooperate and develop technology to meet future tyre industry demands requires the best in the field.
“This requires a partnership between different companies in order to holistically consider all aspects of a typical tyre manufacturing process, including the entire supply chain,” says Peter Haan, Head of Vertical Management Tire at Siemens AG. Zeppelin Systems is also a strong and experienced partner who cares deeply about sustainability and the circular economy in the tyre industry. “That’s why Siemens decided to join the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance,” adds Peter Haan.
Specifically, Siemens is providing the use of digital twins to develop and improve sustainable tire production as part of the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance. For example, seamless information flows between the real and digital world, holistic sustainability impacts along the value chain, or the optimisation of process cycles can be simulated.
Advancing decarbonisation through transparent and manageable product CO2 footprints (PCF) with SiGreen, a SaaS application for exchanging dynamic PCF along the Siemens value chain, is also part of the collaborative partnership within the alliance.
Zeppelin Systems and Siemens have previously worked closely together in the past: The Zeppelin Systems subsidiary in India is a fulfilment partner of Siemens, and the tyre systems built there contain hardware from Siemens. Further fulfilment partnerships are conceivable in the future.
Dr. Markus Vöge, CEO of Zeppelin Systems GmbH, adds; “With Siemens joining the Zeppelin Sustainable Tire Alliance, a large technology company is now working alongside Zeppelin Systems to establish future-oriented processes and solutions for the production and recycling of tyres . This makes us proud and confident that we are on the right path with the Alliance and our vision.”
Bridgestone is supplying tyres developed with recovered carbon black, recycled oil, rice husk silica and other recycled and renewable materials to teams at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC)
Bridgestone has announced it will be supplying teams at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) with tyres developed using 63 per cent recycled and renewable materials. The tyres are custom designed to meet the unique challenges of the 3,000 kilometre race across Australia.
Bridgestone has always endeavoured to support safety in motorsport where drivers are repeatedly challenged under extreme conditions and situations. The company maintains immense pride and passion, and a relentless commitment to the evolution of technology, production, logistics, brand power, and talent development through motorsport.
“ENLITEN”: Bridgestone’s new technology for premium tyre design in the EV era Bridgestone has developed new tyres for the 2023 BWSC featuring ENLITEN, the company’s new base technology for product design. ENLITEN elevates conventional tyres by enhancing environmental performance while also exceeding the customer and market demands in product performance. Through the advanced performance attributes of ENLITEN technology, Bridgestone is focused on increasing social value and customer value.
The ENLITEN-equipped tyres supplied to the BWSC were designed to help teams meet the extreme demands during the 3000km event, including low rolling resistance, wear and weight. Bridgestone will customise tyres based on the needs from the teams to demonstrate the new ENLITEN technology and exceptional capabilities of the tyres.Bridgestone will further develop and deliver ENLITEN technology-equipped tyres customised for customers through motorsport and conventional tyres.
BWSC tyre made using 63% recycled and renewable materials The tyres Bridgestone is supplying will include a tyre with a recycled and renewable material ratio (MCN – Material Circularity Number) of 63 per cent, which is an improvement compared to approximately 30 per cent in the 2019 BWSC event. The recycled and renewable materials used in the development of these tyres include recycled organic fibre, recovered carbon black, recycled rubber chemical, recycled oil, and reinforcement material using recycled steel. Furthermore, tyres supplied to the cruiser class were additionally developed using rice husk silica and carbon black recovered through pyrolysis of used tyre.
Low carbon emission logistics in tyre shipping For BWSC tyre shipment, Bridgestone chose to work with DHL, a leading logistics provider targeting zero emission by 2050. Through the use of DHL’s GoGreen Plus solution, the transport of tyres to the BWSC will be a 100 per cent carbon neutral shipment through a combination of using sustainable marine fuel (insetting) and compensation of emissions via VER Gold Standard carbon credits (offsetting).
”Bridgestone is passionate about contributing to a more sustainable motorsports future at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge through our ENLITEN tyres made with 63 per cent recycled and renewable materials, as well as our collaborative supply chain initiatives. We will demonstrate the new technology through the extreme conditions,” said Naotaka Horio, Director, Bridgestone Motorsports. “Additionally, as title sponsor, we are looking forward to helping young and diverse engineering minds from all over the world create breakthrough technologies in the BWSC that can play a role in a more sustainable mobility society of the future.”