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<\/p>\nContinental is prioritising the use of renewable and recycled materials in its tyre production. While the share of these materials averaged 26 per cent in 2024, the tyre manufacturer expects an increase of two to three percentage points by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
In just five years, by 2030, this figure is expected to rise to at least 40 per cent. Among other materials, the focus is on rubber and resins from various more sustainable sources. Both materials are essential for the quality and performance characteristics of tyres.<\/p>\n
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Synthetic rubber from renewable and recycled materials and responsibly sourced natural rubber play a crucial role in more sustainable tyre production. This is due not least to the high content of this key raw material in every tyre produced, with modern high-performance tyres consisting of up to 40 per cent rubber by weight.<\/p>\n
The actual type of rubber used in a particular tyre depends heavily on the component in question and the function it performs.<\/p>\n
Continental car tyres are composed of up to 100 different raw materials, which in turn are used to produce up to 20 different customised rubber compounds per article, among other things. These also contain more and more recycled variants of additives and supplementary raw materials as well as circular resins that make the resulting rubber more pliable and improve overall tyre performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re closing the loop: Continental is ramping up its commitment to a circular economy and mapping out its path for the future,\u201d says Jorge Almeida, head of Sustainability at Continental Tires. \u201cInnovative solutions enable us to use more sustainable raw materials, such as synthetic rubber made from used cooking oil or resins based on certified renewable feedstocks originally derived from vegetable oil.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Synthetic rubber from recycled cooking oil<\/strong> Continental mainly uses two categories of rubber, each offering specific technological benefits for specific tyre components: natural rubber and synthetically produced rubber. Natural rubber \u2013 the type traditionally used in tyre production \u2013 is used, for example, in the treads of car and truck tyres, where the rubber needs to be extremely hard-wearing.<\/p>\n Its special properties include its impact resistance and durability, thanks to the strain-induced crystallisation inherent in naturally grown rubber. This unique feature of natural rubber cannot yet be reproduced artificially.<\/p>\n Synthetic rubber, meanwhile, is incorporated into the tread of car tyres in addition to natural rubber because of its superior braking performance and rolling resistance. The tyre manufacturer is increasingly using synthetic rubber derived from more sustainable sources, such as for example pyrolysis oil made from end-of-life tyres or used cooking oil.<\/p>\n It sources the raw materials for this more sustainable synthetic rubber from suppliers such as Synthos and TotalEnergies Cray Valley, both of which are using a mass balance approach valorising sustainable sources certified by the ISCC PLUS International Sustainability and Carbon Certification. The production processes and raw materials used to manufacture the synthetic rubber supplied comply with this system.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Continental is prioritising the use of renewable and recycled materials in its tyre production. While the share of these materials averaged 26 per cent in 2024, the tyre manufacturer expects an increase of two to three percentage points by the end of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":40194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,1],"tags":[786],"class_list":["post-40193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-continental","category-news","tag-continental"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nRubber is a vital commodity for global mobility. Vehicles such as cars, trucks, bicycles and e-bikes all rely on rubber tyres to keep them moving, as do motorbikes, forklift trucks and port cranes. The components that make up a tyre consist of various types of rubber spanning a range of applications.<\/p>\n