Bekaert delivers recycled steel tire cord content to Bridgestone

Zwevegem, Belgium – In the spirit of creating a better tomorrow, Bekaert has been paving the way for tire reinforcement with high recycled content that contributes to the circular economy. High recycled content reduces the CO2 footprint of our product by about 50%.

As a next milestone on our sustainability journey, Bekaert is proud to announce it has obtained its first third-party certificates for its tire reinforcement with high recycled steel content. Such certification helps meet the rising demand of our customers and end markets and address a critical challenge in the industry.

“There are many claims about circularity of materials in the tire industry, but lack of clear definitions and standards can lead to doubt on the validity of those claims. This third-party certification of both Bekaert and our wire rod supplier enables us to provide our customers with a guarantee of compliance of the recycled content claims based on recognized industry standards. This certificate allows customers to confidently include the recycled content in the Bekaert products to the tally of recycled content in their tires.”

In the third-party certified definition of recycled content, Bekaert applies the best available recycled content definitions and traceability of materials. Bekaert’s tire reinforcement has a minimum recycled content of 50 percent for tire cord and 70 percent for bead wire. The rigorous processes at the supplier’s wire rod factory and at the Bekaert steel cord plant allow Bekaert to trace the content in the composition and separate this material from others in all steps of production, storage, and transport. Thus, it is guaranteed that the physical content of the steel cord and bead wire supplied to our customers contain the declared amount of recycled steel.

The first batches of third-party certified recycled steel have been delivered to our esteemed customer Bridgestone Corporation. This successful pilot is the first step toward setting a new industry standard for recycled content in tire reinforcement, and to making certified tire reinforcement with high recycled content available to our customers across the globe.