Michelin tyres will be 100% sustainable from 2050. The French tyre manufacturing company has set its targets to produce tyres entirely from renewable, recycled, biosourced or other sustainable materials. This announcement inspired by the VISION concept of 2017 is aimed towards meeting the challenge to make mobility safer, cleaner and more efficient. Currently, Michelin claims to use about 30% of materials that are made from natural and recycled materials.
To meet the target, a very capable R&D is the key main ingredient. Michelin pretty much knows the value of this and thus has over 6,000 personnel working in seven research and development centres spread across the world. With the support of these employees, the company has filed over 10,000 patents covering various tyre design and manufacturing. Dedicated research and development teams help in achieving the target to improve tyre safety, durability, ride and other performance features along with helping to meet the target to be 100% sustainable by 2050.
Michelin is forming new partnerships with various innovative companies which will propel them to make future proof products and offer unlimited prospects. Currently, Axens and IFP Energies Nouvelles are the two companies that are responsible for the BioButterfly project. Under this, Michelin is trying to produce bio-sourced butadiene and replace the traditional petroleum-based butadiene. As per estimations, using sustainable materials like rice husks, wood, leaves, corn stalks and other plant wastes can produce a total of 4.2 million tonnes of wood chips. Another such collaboration with a Canadian company named Pyrowave will help produce recycled styrene from plastics. The partnership with French startup Carbios will help deconstruct PET bottles into their original pure monomers using some enzymes. As per estimates, this could potentially lead to recycling around 4 billion plastic bottles.
Michelin can set itself as an example of how companies should take their sustainable goals with the utmost importance. Michelin is currently the largest tyre manufacturing company in the world which produces some of the most innovative products like airless tyres and more. Currently, in the pandemic, the sales had taken a major dip although the market is recovering back since the past few months.