By Redação AutoIndústria | 4/28/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
Bridgestone Americas has just concluded a 200 tires series of demonstration tires made with 75% recycled and renewable materials – 37% from plastic bottles and 37% natural rubber originated from shrubs grown in the Arizona desert. The company is now talking with automotive manufacturers to promote this year a joint evaluation of the use of the product by the next generations of electrified SUVs and crossovers.
“As we progress in our transformation to a sustainable solutions company, we are making incredible progress in the use of recycled and renewable materials to bring sustainable tire technology from the drawing board to the driveway,” said Paolo Ferrari, president and CEO of Bridgestone Americas.
“This initiative marks a significant milestone as we accelerate our progress toward using fully sustainable materials in our products by 2050.”
The executive told there are other studies ongoing using 90% recycled tires and renewable materials to make a new tire. The demonstration tire was developed at Bridgestone Americas Technological Center in Akron, Ohio, and manufactured at the Aiken County Passenger/Light Truck plant in Graniteville, South Caroline.
Bridgestone said the new tire is the first street tire to utilize natural rubber derived from the guayule desert shrub cultivated at Bridgestone’s guayule R&D agricultural facility in Eloy, Arizona.
The company has spent more than ten years and over $100 million on the research and development of guayule as an alternative to imported natural rubber from the Hevea Brasiliensis tree grown mainly in Southeast Asia.
