NASHVILLE, Tenn.—For Bridgestone Americas Inc., the road to 100 is looking a little less daunting.
Because the Nashville-based tire maker is just about 75 percent of the way there.
Bridgestone said April 6 that it had produced a run of demonstration tires that achieve 75 percent sustainable materials—think: renewable and recycled—usage. It's a significant achievement as it pursues its aim of bringing to market a 100-percent sustainable materials tire by 2050.
This milestone, in particular, is one the tire maker achieved by leaning into some of those technologies that have become crowning achievements.
And that's a big deal for Bridgestone. Because this demonstration tire is the first passenger car tire to use guayule-derived natural rubber.
Until this point, Bridgestone had successfully integrated guayule into its Firestone Firehawk racing tires.
"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," Paolo Ferrari, Bridgestone Americas president and CEO, said in a statement. "The production and deployment of a 75-percent recycled and renewable materials tire technology marks a significant milestone as we accelerate our progress toward using fully sustainable materials in our products by 2050."
The tire maker has been aggressive in its research and development of guayule as an alternative natural rubber, making the material a central part of its vision for more than a decade. The company also has invested more than $100 million in those efforts.
Last year, the tire maker expanded its R&D with a $35 million USDA grant. It later disclosed a $42 million investment of its own that would help to commercially scale operations around the alternative NR.
As for the 75-percent sustainable tire milestone, guayule is just the start. Bridgestone also employs sustainably sourced, biobased materials including hevea, rice husk ash silica and plant-based oils and resins.
On the recycled materials side, Bridgestone is employing technologies that help to transform recycled plastics bottles into synthetic rubber and end-of-life tires into recycled carbon black made from tire pyrolysis oils.
The demonstration tire also is made with recycled steel, additional rCB and recycled rubber chemicals.
Moreover, Bridgestone said, multiple materials used in the tires are ISCC Plus-certified, "ensuring transparency and traceability of sustainable raw materials including bio, bio-circular and circular-based material."
Bridgestone's 75-percent sustainable materials tire was designed and engineered at its Americas Technology Center in Akron and produced at the company's P/LT radial tire plant in Graniteville, S.C.
For the tire industry overall, Bridgestone's achievement marks another significant sustainability step forward.
Goodyear, earlier this year, unveiled a demonstration truck tire that it said contained 90 percent sustainable materials content.
Michelin, in October, rolled out a pair of road-ready tires. The tires, one for passenger vehicles and the other buses, contained 45-percent and 58-percent sustainable materials, respectively.
Apollo in February showcased its own capabilities around sustainable materials usage with a 75 percent sustainable materials tire of its own. In doing so, the company reiterated its commitment to sustainability.
Continental, also, has been making progress with sustainable materials usage in its tires, focusing on dandelion-derived alternative rubber and recycled PET.
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