Imagine you’ve just walked into one of those commercials for laundry detergent where you see detailed food stains on the fabrics of your sweater. Now imagine that instead of a jersey, you’re getting into the “mesh” of a Continental tire.
If the lunch consisted of vegetable rice and water, it is even possible that the husks of that rice and the bottle of that water were used to produce the tire that you are now imagining. And at this moment it is legitimate to ask yourself: “but what does the rice and the water for lunch have to do with the tires of my car?”.
And no one better to answer it than Continental Tires Director of Sustainability, Claus Petschick: “Continental is on its way to becoming the most progressive manufacturer in the tire industry in terms of sustainability. Our goal is to use 100% sustainable materials in our tires by 2050.”
Continental knows that the future of the planet depends on us, which is why it has set itself the goal of producing fully sustainable tires by 2050 (at the latest), made from materials such as rice husk ash, clove natural rubber, lion, PET bottles recycled or even recycled rubber.
Maximum Sustainability, Maximum Security
If, on the one hand, we are used to relying on Continental to feel safe on the road, when we drive our cars, on the other hand, there is a path that Continental’s tire engineers have been following, constantly optimizing manufacturing processes, making They currently use around 15-20% renewable or recycled materials in passenger car tires.
This ability to reuse different materials (with their unique properties and interdependencies) requires a very complex balance on the part of engineering teams, because only when all materials are perfectly matched to each other can safe, energy-efficient, durable and durable tires be obtained. high perfomance. .
However, despite constant research and research, natural rubber is still essential to ensure tire strength and durability, accounting for 10-40% of the total weight of modern high-performance tires. .
Nothing is lost, everything transforms:
Less natural rubber, more sustainable materials
To reverse the sustainability curve, several projects and tests have been carried out to explore new materials for tire production:
#1 dandelion
Through innovative approaches such as the Taraxagum project, Continental attempts to counter the reliance on cultivated natural rubber by working with the extraction of natural rubber from specially cultivated dandelion plants.
#2 rice hulls
Another example of this change is precisely the silica extracted from rice husks, which is more energy efficient than that obtained from conventional materials such as quartz sand.
#3 PET bottles
Through recycled PET bottles and the ContiRe.Tex technology, it is possible to recycle polyester threads to produce the “casings” of tires, which allows the reuse of between nine and fifteen plastic bottles for each tire, depending on the size. The first tires with polyester threads obtained with this technology were produced in 2021, at the Continental factory in Lousado, in the municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão, so it is possible that it contributed some bottles of juice or water.
#4 Recycled rubber
The agreement signed between Continental and Pyrum Innovations is another good example of sustainable development, with a view to further optimizing the recycling of old tire materials at the end of their life, recycling high-quality raw materials such as steel, textile yarn and rubber. , creating a closed-loop circular economy concept to recycle old tires.
1871 – 2023:
More electric cars, more special tires
Bringing safety to the road without compromising comfort and driving pleasure has been Continental’s goal since its founding in 1871, and if by 2023 we see more and more electric cars on the road, then let’s also start to notice that all tires new from Continental passenger cars The brand has a new brand of EV (electric vehicles), underlining the strategy of adaptation to the new segment, helping to reduce consumption and noise.
It is no coincidence that in 2022, Continental has been the manufacturer of choice as an Original Equipment (OE) supplier for nine of the ten most successful electric vehicle manufacturers, including Tesla, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, among others.
Less noise, smarter
One of the latest innovations is the new #1 Smart electric SUV, which will leave the factory equipped with Continental’s premium EcoContact 6 Q tires, designed for an extremely quiet and energy-efficient drive. The special rubber compound minimizes energy absorption while the vehicle is in motion, reducing friction and rolling resistance.
After all this innovation, if you still want to be more sustainable, you can also “put” the Continental on your feet and go for a run, with maximum grip on the soles.
Source: Observadora
