Michelin to Make Tires From Recycled Plastic Bottles

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Michelin- the French multinational tyre manufacturing company announced plans to turn millions of plastic bottles into tires. The company will partner with Carbios- a French biochemistry company in implementing the new manufacturing process.

The partnership will make use of a ‘enzymatic” plastic recycling technology to break down plastic bottles to create polyester yarns, which in turn will be used in tire manufacturing. Thus it prevents plastic waste from ending up in land and water, by turning them into reinforced fibers for Michelin’s tires.

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The technology preserves the product’s integrity. Consequently, the tires that incorporate such compounds do not compromise on performance or quality. It must be noted that Carbios had produced first PET bottle with compounds generated as a result of enzymatic recycling of used plastics, way back in 2019.

The new partnership is the result of Michelin’s goal to have 40% of materials used in its tires to be renewable or recyclable by 2030. Also, the company hopes to raise this to 100% by 2050. The new partnership could lead to recycling of approximately 4 billion plastic bottles per annum into tires.