Bridgestone’s tires are going circular

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Bridgestone is no stranger to recycling tires.

For years, the company has collected used tires and repurposed their component parts. Sometimes they’re turned into rubberized asphalt, sometimes construction materials or mulch, sometimes burned for fuel. There’s just one problem: A lot of carbon is often emitted along the way. Melting tires down for the cement industry, for example, releases 100 percent of the carbon in that tire back into the atmosphere.

So Bridgestone, with a renewed company-wide focus on sustainability, is using a different strategy to create tires from recycled material. Through a partnership with LanzaTech, the world’s largest tire manufacturer is scaling up a closed-looped system that uses bacteria to break down the rubber, capture carbon and create the raw material for new rubber.

“We’re looking at completing that circle to bring that material back to making your tire,” said Nizar Trigui, Bridgestone’s chief technology officer. He’s spent the past 30 years in the mobility and tech businesses, with more than 20 years at Ford Motor Co. Now he’s leading Bridgestone’s sustainable business transformation. Read more…