Continental: First Tyres With Recycled PET Bottles Launched

Continental has become the first premium tyre manufacturer to use recycled polyester yarn in their car tyres' construction – on a mass-produced scale.

The recycled polyester yarn makes use of a new process, obtaining the material from PET plastic bottles, with the material being used in the composition of selected high-performance tyres.

The first models from Continental’s catalogue that are to be made with this recycled yarn include:

• Continental PremiumContact 6
• Continental EcoContact 6
• Continental AllSeasonContact

By using the recycled product, Continental are completely replacing the conventional polyester more commonly used in the carcass of these tyres. With each set of recycled tyres using material from 40 recycled PET bottles.

This new ‘ContiRe.Tex technology’ was first announced in September of 2021, with Continental explaining:

“It uses polyester yarn, which is obtained from used PET bottles without any intermediate chemical steps and not recycled in any other way. This makes the technology much more efficient than other standard methods for processing PET bottles into high-performance polyester yarns.

“The bottles used for the technology come exclusively from regions without a closed recycling loop. As part of a special recycling process, the bottles are sorted and mechanically cleaned, after the caps are removed. After mechanical shredding, the PET is further processed into granulate and finally spun polyester yarn.”

Tyres which make use of the ContiRe.Tex technology in their construction can be identified by a unique logo on the tyre’s sidewall - “Contains Recycled Material”

Although polyester yarn obtained from PET is not wholly new – it has been a part of the construction of passenger and light truck tyres previously – this is the first-time high-performance car tyres will be making use of the material in their construction, on a mass scale.

The benefits of textile cords, aside from the environmental element of recycling old plastic bottles, is that the material can absorb a tyre’s internal pressure well, whilst remaining stable when subjected to high temperatures and heavy loads

The breakdown of what model and in which sizes, making use of this new technology is as follows:

Continental PremiumContact 6:

• 225/45 R17 91Y
• 225/40 R18 92Y
• 235/45 R18 98Y
• 235/40 R19 96Y
• 245/40 R19 98Y XL

Continental EcoContact 6:

• 205/55 R16 91V
• 195/65 R15 91V
• 205/60 R16 96H XL
• 185/65 R15 88H
• 235/55 R18 100V

Continental AllSeasonContact:

• 205/55 R16 91H
• 225/45 R17 94V
• 205/60 R16 96H
• 215/65 R16 102V
• 235/55 R19 105V