Producers play a vital function in attaining a sustainable and environmentally pleasant future. They’ve the ability to straight affect useful resource utilization by varied measures corresponding to lowering their reliance on new uncooked supplies. Product design can be key in rising circularity, as rethinking the design of many on a regular basis objects (like tyres) will help minimise waste.

Product design ought to incorporate extra round supplies into manufacturing phases to advertise materials reuse and recycling, preserve pure assets, and restrict power use and carbon emissions. The tyre-to-tyre mannequin closes the fabric loop in tyre manufacturing and reuses previous tyre supplies to make new tyres. Finish-of-life tyres (ELTs) are a helpful useful resource, and a number of other applied sciences can be utilized to recuperate the supplies as options to plain virgin fossil fuels-based uncooked supplies.

Given the complexity of tyre recycling, there are various ways in which redesigning tyres can incorporate extra circularity in the long term.

Supplies and manufacturing

Tyres are made from rubber composites to enhance efficiency. This makes recycling ELTs difficult. A method for suppliers to extend sustainability is to surrender fossil-fuel-based uncooked supplies like rubber and fillers, which create air pollution and have a excessive carbon footprint. As an alternative, they’ll select recycled secondary supplies, like recovered Carbon Black (rCB) and Recovered Metal, that may be additional recycled. Producers also can use bio-based components like rubber from dandelions as an alternative of Hevea brasiliensis or fillers made out of rape seed oil.

The selection of supplies within the design stage is essential in attaining circularity. Rubber elastomers, metal, and textiles utilized in tyres are built-in utilizing adhesives, making subsequent disassembly troublesome. Selecting components and composites with particular rubber polymer sorts can simplify disassembly earlier than recycling.

Round supplies like rCB, metal, and Tyre Pyrolysis Oil (TPO) can shut the fabric loop in tyre manufacturing. These supplies are produced from ELTs. Different elements from ELTs, like rubber crumble, also can make new tyres. An industry-level effort and cooperation will likely be crucial to gather ELTs for recycling and reusing these supplies in circularly designed vehicles.

Spend money on modular design

One other vital advantage of round design is the manufacturing of ordinary modular elements. Product design can irreversibly have an effect on the convenience of separating elements for later reuse and recycling, which causes circularity to contain appreciable know-how and power. Part separation is a recycling problem that reduces tyre materials recycling, repurposing, and financial circulation. The issue of tyre disassembly means almost 50% of ELTs are incinerated.

Producers can put money into new progressive tyre designs that produce modular particular person elements for less complicated disassembly for recycling, restore, and reuse in manufacturing new tyres. Equally, modular elements in new automobile designs will permit for extra alternative and restore, lowering demand for brand new autos and lessening using new uncooked supplies to construct vehicles.

Recycling and reuse

An preliminary product design incorporating future recycling is important to maintain tyre supplies in circulation. The recycling course of will should be improved to permit for extra environment friendly separation of supplies and to extend the demand for recycling and reuse in new tyre manufacturing. Profitable tyre redesign will think about the ELTs a helpful useful resource to supply secondary merchandise, stopping them from being incinerated or landfilled.

Circularity in product redesign can allow automotive and tyre producers to take accountability for his or her merchandise’ whole lifecycle, as stipulated by varied regional Prolonged Producer Accountability laws. Nevertheless, producers should additionally take accountability for different phases of the method by organising correct disposal and recycling of end-of-life merchandise.

Governments can encourage round design practices and the event of crucial applied sciences by passing laws to help industries and incentivise circularity. For instance, below the Prolonged Producer Accountability coverage, producers within the EU should pay for the waste they generate.

The brand new EU Proper to Restore coverage proposed in 2023 needs to be one other incentive for adopting round and modular design practices within the automotive and tire industries.

Designing for recycling

The tyre {industry} has been targeted on growing and manufacturing fuel-efficient tyres to make sustainable and environmentally pleasant vehicles. Nevertheless, producers also can purpose to streamline recycling by integrating it into tyre designs to extend using round, sustainable uncooked supplies within the automotive {industry}.

Circularity in automotive and tyre product designs will even enhance innovation, enterprise alternatives, provide safety, and {industry} value financial savings.

The opinions expressed listed below are these of the creator and don’t essentially replicate the positions of Automotive World Ltd.

Krzysztof Wróblewski is Chief Govt of Contec

The Automotive World Remark column is open to automotive {industry} choice makers and influencers. If you want to contribute a Remark article, please contact editorial@automotiveworld.com