Goodyear, one of the world's largest tire manufacturers, has announced plans to develop tires made from 90% sustainable materials in an effort to reduce the pollution caused by improper disposal of tires.

One of the benefits of these sustainable tires is their lower rolling resistance, which improves fuel economy and reduces a vehicle's carbon footprint. The tires have also been designed to reduce fuel consumption, making them ideal for electric vehicles where the tire choice can have a significant impact on the vehicle's range.

Goodyear is using materials like soybean oil, polyester from recycled bottles, bio-renewable pine tree resins, and steel produced using a low-greenhouse-gas-emissions electric arc furnace process. The company has also doubled its use of sustainable rice husk waste residue silica since 2018.

While the 90% sustainable tires are still a few years away from hitting the road, Goodyear is already setting ambitious goals for the future, with plans to build a 100% sustainable tire by 2030, which would make them the first company to achieve such a feat.

The 90% sustainable-material tire has been developed as a demonstration tire, which means Goodyear has proven its ability to produce a consumer tire with a high-level of sustainable-material content.

“We continue to make progress toward our goal of introducing the first 100% sustainable-material tire in the industry by 2030,” said Chris Helsel, senior vice president, Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer. “The past year was a pivotal one toward achieving this goal. We researched new technologies, identified opportunities for further collaboration and utilized our team’s tenacity to not only demonstrate our capabilities to produce a 90% sustainable-material tire, but to also produce a tire with up to 70% sustainable-material content this year. Our team continues to showcase its innovation and commitment to building a better future.”

What is a sustainable material?

A sustainable material is defined as a bio-based/renewable, recycled material or one that may be produced using or contributing to other sustainable practices for resource conservation and/or emissions reductions including mass-balance materials.

Source: Goodyear