Bridgestone and Michelin to deliver a joint presentation on proposed global standard for recovered carbon black
Clermont-Ferrand, France – Following the joint call to action around recovered carbon black at last year’s Smithers rCB conference, Bridgestone Corporation and Michelin Group will deliver a joint presentation to share the results of their work with stakeholders in the rCB community to develop a proposed global standard to increase the utilization of recovered carbon black material in tires. The joint presentation will take place at the Smithers Recovered Carbon Black Conference in Berlin on November 16, 2022.
Earlier this year, the two companies released a position paper focused on the joint initiative to increase the use of recovered carbon black. The position paper outlined the reasoning behind this important call to action and the goals that Bridgestone and Michelin plan to achieve through this collaboration.
Globally, 1 billion tires, representing around 30 M Tons of materials, are estimated to reach the end of their useful service life every year. Many of the technical challenges surrounding the use of recycled and recovered materials from end-of-life tires are understood, but barriers remain towards achieving material circularity at the scale necessary to realize a more sustainable mobility ecosystem. Today, fewer than 1% of all carbon black material used globally in new tire production comes from recycled end-of-life tires due to a sub-optimal supply-chain for the recovery and reuse of carbon black.
Recovered carbon black presents an opportunity to reduce the tire industry’s reliance on petrochemicals by replacing a portion of traditional carbon black with a sustainable and circular alternative without introducing performance compromises. Additionally, using recovered carbon black in new tire production reduces CO2 emissions by up to 85% compared to virgin materials.
“The use of recovered carbon black in tires accelerates us toward achieving our goal of delivering products that are made from 100% sustainable materials by 2050,” said Marco Musaio, Head of End of Life Tire & Circular Economy, Bridgestone Europe. “In partnership with Michelin and other stakeholders, we are working through the technical challenges surrounding the use of recycled or recovered materials from end-of-life tires to achieve material circularity at a scale that is necessary to realize a cleaner and more sustainable mobility ecosystem.”
“We are delighted to share the results of the “Call to Action” initiative that we launched in collaboration with Bridgestone in November 2021 during last year’s recovered Carbon Black conference,” said Sander Vermeulen, Vice President – End-of-Life Rubber Products Recycling Business for Michelin. “We strongly believe that proposing a global recovered Carbon Black standard, which was established with various stakeholders across the tire and rubber value chain, will allow to transform tires at end of life into very high-quality raw materials that can be incorporated in new tires which is essential in the industry’s journey toward material circularity.”
Bridgestone and Michelin plan to release a white paper before the end of the year that details the findings of the focus groups attended by rCB stakeholders and suppliers