Producers play an important function in attaining a sustainable and environmentally pleasant future. They’ve the facility to immediately affect useful resource utilization by means of numerous measures equivalent to decreasing 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) can assist minimise waste.

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 The tyre-to-tyre mannequin closes the fabric loop in tyre manufacturing and reuses outdated tyre supplies to make new tyres.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

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

Supplies and manufacturing

Tyres are manufactured 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 will select recycled secondary supplies, like recovered Carbon Black (rCB) and Recovered Metal, that may be additional recycled. Producers also can use bio-based substances 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 varieties 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 parts from ELTs, like rubber crumble, also can make new tyres. An industry-level effort and cooperation shall be essential to gather ELTs for recycling and reusing these supplies in circularly designed vehicles.

Put money into modular design

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

Producers can spend money on new progressive tyre designs that produce modular particular person parts for easier disassembly for recycling, restore, and reuse in manufacturing new tyres. Equally, modular parts in new automotive designs will enable for extra alternative and restore, reducing demand for brand new automobiles and lessening the usage of new uncooked supplies to construct automobiles.

Recycling and reuse

An preliminary product design incorporating future recycling is important to maintain tyre supplies in circulation. The recycling course of will have to 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 worthwhile 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 duty for his or her merchandise’ whole lifecycle, as stipulated by numerous regional Prolonged Producer Duty rules. Nonetheless, producers should additionally take duty for different levels of the method by organising correct disposal and recycling of end-of-life merchandise.

Governments can encourage round design practices and the event of essential applied sciences by passing rules to assist industries and incentivise circularity. For instance, underneath the Prolonged Producer Duty coverage, producers within the EU should pay for the waste they generate.

The brand new EU Proper to Restore coverage proposed in 2023 must 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 centered on growing and manufacturing fuel-efficient tyres to make sustainable and environmentally pleasant automobiles. Nonetheless, producers also can intention to streamline recycling by integrating it into tyre designs to extend the usage of round, sustainable uncooked supplies within the automotive {industry}.

Circularity in automotive and tyre product designs can 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 mirror the positions of Automotive World Ltd.

Krzysztof Wróblewski is Chief Govt of Contec

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