How tyres are turning green

Tyres hide a feat of engineering beneath their nondescript black outer layer. Around 200 different raw materials come together to ensure car tyre performance, durability and safety. But less than 20% of the materials in a typical car tyre are currently renewable or recycled, with many of the rest derived from petroleum. In recent years, the tyre industry has steered significant R&D efforts towards reducing the environmental impact of car tyre materials. Many manufacturers have pledged that their car tyres will contain 100% renewable or recycled materials by 2050.

This might sound slow paced, but the complexity of tyre design makes the transition challenging. Each of the different materials that go into making tyres have their own specific job within the broader matrix. Tyre compositions vary between manufacturers, tyre types and price points, but most share the same layered construction.

Rubber is a natural polymer and makes up most of a car tyre, which are typically 20–30% natural rubber and a roughly equivalent amount of synthetic rubber. The increased demand of natural rubber over time has seen vast areas of tropical rainforests replaced by rubber trees. Over the past decade, the rubber industry has taken steps to prevent deforestation